BOTANY Higher Secondary Second Year - Textbooks Online

1. To develop more food crops
2. To increase quality in food crops and
3. To have sustainable food quality in food crops and assured food
supply.
By introducing specialized technology, plant breeders are now able
to develop more crops, which they multiply and supply them to the growers.
Improvement in the genetic make up of plants is called plant breeding.
Major aspects of plant breeding include
1. creation of useful variation in the cultivable crops.
2. selection of better crops.
3. conducting / carrying out breeding experiments to assess the quality
of the crop and
4. release of a variety after their extensive multiplication.
Aims of plant breeding
The first and foremost aim in plant breeding is to create useful variation
in the crop plant. This can be achieved by the following measures.
1. Bringing wild food crops to cultivation. (wheat, oats and many
cereal crops were once wild plants which had now been
domesticated).
2. Obtaining genes from desirable plants or related species (eg. as
seeds from various parts of the world).
3. Introduction of plants from nearby regions or even from other
countries for improvement of the crop. (eg. cauliflower, tomato,
potato and soyabeans).
4. By employing certain plant breeding techniques, new varieties are
developed. eg. maize, sorghum, cotton and sunflower.
5. Auto and Allopolyploid breeding.
6. By inducing mutations using physical and chemical mutagens.
7. Production of haploids by the application of plant tissue culture of
anther and ovary.
8. Improvement of nutritional quality by genetic engineering (eg.
Fortified rice - iron rich rice and carotene rich rice).
9. Development of disease, drought and environmental stress resistant
varieties.
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