What is the importance of plant breeding in agriculture

Plant breeding — the science of maximizing plants’ positive genetic traits to produce desirable effects — continues to open new frontiers in

agricultural production. Advancements in plant genetics and genomics

, when used in breeding, help support higher production and cultivation of crops resistant to pests, pathogens, and drought.

Full
Answer

What is the purpose of plant breeding?

Plant breeding, application of genetic principles to produce plants that are more useful to humans. This is accomplished by selecting plants found to be economically or aesthetically desirable, first by controlling the mating of selected individuals, and then by selecting certain individuals among the progeny.

Is plant breeding the key to sustainable food production?

Select and refine the best: plant breeding is a guarantor of life and the key to greater sustainability in the field. (Image: iStock / xefstock) So let’s not fool ourselves: almost nothing we eat today, whether organic or conventional, was found in nature 10,000 years ago.

What is the role of crop breeders in agriculture?

In addition, crop breeders gather a lot of information about the unique qualities of each plant. Through this article, we can conclude that science is advancing and making agricultural techniques easy for our farmers and also helping in getting high yield crops with lots of varieties for the people. Q.1. What are the methods of plant breeding? 1.

What is the difference between genetics and plant breeding?

Genetics: is a branch of science that deals with the study of inheritance of characters. Plant breeding: is a science that employs genetics to evolve certain cultivars that give extra yields and have better resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses which help farmer meet his requirements through the proffession called Agricultur…

Why is breeding important in agriculture?

Breeding is necessary to develop resistance to diseases and pests, to drought and temperature extremes, and to improve quality factors that can positively impact the lives of people throughout the world.

What is the significance of plant breeding?

plant breeding, application of genetic principles to produce plants that are more useful to humans. This is accomplished by selecting plants found to be economically or aesthetically desirable, first by controlling the mating of selected individuals, and then by selecting certain individuals among the progeny.

What are the importance of agricultural plants?

Plants form the basic food staple for all life forms. They are the major source of food and oxygen on earth, since no animal can supply these necessary components without plants. The cattle we eat as beef, feed on grasses and the fish we eat, consume algae and are therefore dependent on plants for well being.

What are important areas of plant breeding?

International development agencies believe that breeding new crops is important for ensuring food security by developing new varieties that are higher yielding, disease resistant, drought tolerant or regionally adapted to different environments and growing conditions.

What is plant breeding in agriculture?

“Plant breeding is the purposeful manipulation of qualities in plants to create new varieties with a set of desired characteristics.” Plants with higher qualities are selected by and crossed to obtain plants with desired quality. This results in a plant population with improved and desired traits.

What is the importance of plant breeding in the Philippines?

“New Plant Breeding Techniques enables us to accelerate the development of crop varieties as compared to conventional breeding, it opens up opportunities to further improve our approach in agriculture.

What is the importance of agriculture essay?

It provides benefits on a basic level, and economic level, and a development level. It helps every country in the world in one way or another and provides countless benefits and luxuries that people are lucky to have access to.

What is the meaning and importance of agriculture?

Agriculture is defined as the production of crops and the rearing of animals for man’s use. It involves the tilling of the soil, cultivation of crops, rearing of animals for numerous purposes as well as for food .

What are the importance of plants in the field of industry?

Plants provide food directly, of course, and also feed livestock that is then consumed itself. In addition, plants provide the raw materials for many types of pharmaceuticals, as well as tobacco, coffee, alcohol, and other drugs.

What is plant breeding how does it affect the future of agriculture?

New germplasm, knowledge, and breeding techniques are required to breed the next generation of crop varieties. Plant breeding is both the science and art of developing elite crop cultivars by creating and reassembling desirable inherited traits for human benefit.

What is plant breeding and objectives of plant breeding?

It aims at improving the genetic makeup of the crop plants. Improved varieties are developed through plant breeding. Its objectives are to improve yield, quality, disease-resistance, drought and frost-tolerance and important characteristics of the crops.

What is the traditional method of plant breeding?

SELECTION is the traditional method of plant breeding. 1st of all a large no. of plants are selected from genetically variable original populations. Second, progeny rows are grown from the individual plant selections for observational purposes.

What is crop breeding?

Crop breeding is a continuous process, which aims mostly for up gradation of the genome to meet the emerging situations and problems. In sixties and seventies, long duration crops of Paddy, wheat etc having tall structures producing low yield were cultivated.

What is the branch of science that deals with the study of inheritance of characters?

Genetics: is a branch of science that deals with the study of inheritance of characters. Plant breeding: is a science that employs genetics to evolve certain cultivars that give extra yields and have better resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses which help farmer meet his requirements through the proffession called Agriculture.

Why is genetics important in agriculture?

Genetics is important in Agriculture. The seeds that we currently have will soon be gone. We have genetic bank to preserve the characters of the original plants that are existing at present. New technology has developed new varieties of plants which are becoming more resistant to plant pests and diseases. Plant breeding involves production of new breeds of plants that possesses characteristics that are larger in size in terms of leaves, height of the plants, bigger stalks and able to produce bigger production so that farmers can gain more profits and benefits in their farming. Genetics and Plant breeding contributes to the development of better varieties of plants with the goals of making these new varieties more resistant to pest and other negative impacts of climate change. Now that we have problems of scarcity of water and desertification, we need new varieties of plants that can survive the limited amount of water and nutrients and still provide sustainability of food supply. This is where genetics and plant breeding will come in as a solution to the present problem of water scarcity.

Why is genetics important?

Genetics is critical to the future survival of human, allowing us to deal with climate change and continue to feed millions.

Why is breeding a continuous process?

Hence breeding is a continuous process, to evolve new varieties of plants so that such varieties are resistant to the new strains of pathogens/pests. Since we are meddling with nature this kind of problems will have to be sorted out and one method is breeding new varieties/strains.

What is the purpose of improved varieties?

The aim at improving the genetic makeup of the crop plant. Improved varieties are developed through plant breeding . Its objectives are to improve yield, quality , disease -resistance , drought and frost -tolerance and important characteristics.

Why do we need more plants?

Our fields will also need to become diversified: we need more plant species if we are to feed the world, and we need more resistant varieties of these species. Moreover, the varieties must be of top quality and yield, conserve soil and water, and require as little fertiliser and pesticides as possible. This ideal path towards sustainable agriculture will need both new plant breeding methods and ecological cultivation of our crops. These are not mutually exclusive – rather, they are complementary.

What are some examples of hybrids that humans have cultivated?

Gradually, humans cultivated modern crops from their wild progenitors. The wheat and spelt we eat today are hybrids created from crossing the genomes of three wild species. Maize with its oversized cobs is a descendent of the shrubby teosinte. Clones of apples, vines and other fruit trees also experienced a loss of innocence, no longer forest and meadow flora, now that they were grafted on to rootstock capable of keeping soil-borne pathogens in check.

What is the arms race between crop and disease?

Behind the idyllic picture of every wheat field, there is actually an arms race going on between crop and disease. (Image: iStock / Adam Smigielski) Humans can do without many things – but not food. Ultimately, every calorie we consume to provide ourselves with biochemical energy is produced by plants. Every little daisy in the world can perform …

Why do farmers have to treat potatoes with copper?

In turn, this enables the development of highly resistant plants that are genetically indistinguishable from conventionally bred varieties. Organic farmers may even be interested in this development [2]. Currently, they must treat potatoes with large amounts of copper in order to keep late blight in check , for example.

How did humans select the best food?

As early as 10,000 years ago, humans selected the best individual specimens from the precursors of today’s maize, wheat, rice and apples, and tried to improve or make them more resistant by “forcing” them to breed with the same or different varieties. For thousands of years, “human selection” was the law of the land. Its success led to greater yields and better tasting food.

What are the new methods in molecular biology?

New methods in molecular biology (keyword genome editing) have the potential to make agricultural crop breeding more efficient. This entails socially relevant issues and challenges, which the Zukunftsblog considers in an intermittent series.

Is plant breeding difficult?

In the midst of today’s organic food boom and romantic glorification of nature, plant breeding is in a difficult position: one often forgets that we as humans owe our very survival to the supply of food. Almost nothing that we eat today was originally found in the natural world.

How does plant breeding work?

Plant breeding uses principles from a variety of sciences to improve the genetic potential of plants. The process involves combining parental plants to obtain the next generation with the best characteristics. Breeders improve plants by selecting those with the greatest potential based on performance data, pedigree, …

What is plant breeding?

Plant breeding is the science driven creative process of developing new plant varieties that goes by various names including cultivar development, crop improvement, and seed improvement.

How do breeders improve plants?

Breeders improve plants by selecting those with the greatest potential based on performance data, pedigree, and more sophisticated genetic information. Plants are improved for food, feed, fiber, fuel, shelter, landscaping, eco-systems services and a variety of other human activities.

What is the main objective of a plant breeder?

The principal objective of the plant breeder is to combine as many desirable traits as possible in a single individual which are originally distributed among many individuals . The following are some of the main objectives: 1. Increased Production: Plants are the main source of food for man either directly or indirectly.

Why do varieties have to be evolved through breeding?

It is essential therefore, that varieties, which are at home in a given environmental set up have to be evolved through breeding in order to achieve a higher yield.

Why do breeders try to evolve wheat varieties?

Breeders try to evolve varieties, with strong stems or decreased height in order to prevent lodging a notable mention among wheat varieties which do not lodge in the Mexican dwarf.

What are some traits that can be improved by breeding?

Similarly fruit size, nutritional quality, taste etc, are also qualities that are known to be improved by breeding. To mention one or two examples – Long staple cotton has been produced by crossing two varieties of Egyptian cotton. Similarly breeding has improved the sugar content in sugar beet from 7% to about 16%.

What is breeding programmed?

Breeding programmed are undertaken to increase the per hectare yield in maize, rice, wheat and other cereals. If one can recall what, the King of Brabdingnong told Gulliver (in Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift) during his imaginary trip to that country.

What are the major impediments to agricultural output?

One of the greatest impediments for higher Agricultural output is the plant disease. A variety of causes bring about plant diseases. Fungi, bacteria, nematodes, insects and many other agencies cause untold havoc to agricultural output.

What is improved quality?

2. Improved Quality: The quality of plants in terms of height, size or shape is another character sought after by the plant breeder. Many of the garden plants are highly prized for their shape, density, size, bright color of the flowers, early blooming or late blooming etc.

What Are The Steps of Plant Breeding?

Significance of Plant Breeding

• Some of the significance of plant breeding are as follows: 1. The population size selected is variable and can be small or large, depending on the objective. 2. It is applicable to improving traits of low heritability because the selection is based on progeny performance. 3. In pure line selection, only the best pure line is selected for maximum ge…

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