Sonu Kumar

This book has been designed to cover the course of graduate and Post-graduate levels of various Indian Agricultural and general Universities. It also covers the syllabus of Agricultural Research Services Examination and National Eligibility Test conducted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. This book also helpful to the scientists, students and other areas related to the agricultural research systems in India.

Plant breeding is the science of changing the traits of plants in order to produce desired characteristics. It has been used to improve the quality of nutrition in products for humans and animals. Plant breeding can be accomplished through many different techniques ranging from simply selecting plants with desirable characteristics for propagation, to methods that make use of knowledge of genetics and chromosomes, to more complex molecular techniques. Genes in a plant are what determine what type of qualitative or quantitative traits it will have. Plant breeders strive to create a specific outcome of plants and potentially new plant varieties. Plant breeding has been practiced for thousands of years, since near the beginning of human civilization. It is practiced worldwide by individuals such as gardeners and farmers, and by professional plant breeders employed by organizations such as government institutions, universities, crop-specific industry associations or research centers. International development agencies believe that breeding new crops is important for ensuring food security by developing high yielding, disease, insect pest resistant varieties.