Breeding

Crop improvement by deliberate attempt to cross two parents of desirable characters to incorporate such characters in next generations is called breeding. The entire process of pollination, fertilization and regeneration is kept under control and selected parents are allowed to reproduce only with pollination from desired parent. This method is popularly called as crossing. Crossing has been extensively used in most pollinated crops. Selection and breeding are normally combined to evolve new varieties and hybrids of food crops. The green revolution in our country was possible mainly because of release of high yielding varieties and hybrids. There are three methods of breeding hybridization, ploidy breeding and mutation breeding.