Indian Society of Genetics & Plant Breeding
Systematic plant breeding started following the
rediscovery of Mendel’s laws of inheritance and has
contributed greatly to the improvement of productivity and
nutritional quality of crops. Nearly 50% of the increase in
food production achieved during the past 50 years is
attributed to plant breeding. Breeding improvements are
going to be critical for achieving productivity improvement
in a sustained manner for meeting the food demands of
growing population. There is, however, a concern globally
that plant breeding as a discipline and career is losing
ground and consequently trained plant breeders are
becoming rare. In this presentation, we examine the factors
that appear to have contributed to this decline and suggest
ways to rejuvenate plant breeding to respond to the new
challenges. We stress the need for a comprehensive effort
aimed at all levels starting from attracting young talent to
take up plant breeding as a challenging and paying career,
improving teaching and training, enhancing funding, to
harmonizing public-private partnerships for revitalizing
plant breeding.
Keywords: Plant breeding, students, teaching, food crops, public awareness, Govt. institutions
Year: 2011
Volume: 71
Issue: 2
Article DOI: N/A
Print ISSN: 0019-5200
Online ISSN: 0975-6906
S. R. Bhat info_circle
A. Bandyopadhyay info_circle
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