21 Nov Pre-breeding for effective use of plant genetic resources in crop improvement
फसल सुधार में पादप आनुवंशिक संसाधनों के प्रभावी उपयोग के लिए पूर्व प्रजनन Plant breeding is an art, science and technology of improving genetic makeup of plants for the benefit of humankind. The genetic diversity of crop plants is the foundation for the sustainable development of new varieties for present and future challenges which arises due to the various biotic and abiotic stresses. Genetic diversity provides an option to farmers and plant breeders to develop new and more productive crops / varieties through selection, hybridization and breeding, that are resistant to virulent pests and diseases and adapted to changing environmental conditions. Pre-breeding is necessary for making the germplasm usable in traditional breeding. It is useful in creating vast genetic diversity, broadening genetic base of the population, improving adaptation, value addition by transferring useful alleles from un-adapted sources to adapted cultivars etc. However, use of genes from wild species poses several problems such as cross incompatibility, hybrid inviability, hybrid sterility and linkage between desirable and undesirable alleles. Pre-breeding work has yielded significant results in many field crops such as maize, sorghum, barley, rice, potato, cotton, oilseeds, pulses etc. . The aim should not only be to exploit intraspecific variation within a crop but also to increase interspecific diversity in agriculture through genetic improvement and promotion of less...