Principles and Techniques of Plant Breeding

This book offers the comprehensive knowledge of plant reproduction and their environmental interaction, which can help guide new breeding tools and techniques and help insure enduring progress in serving more food for growing populations. Plant breeding is the process by which humans change the characteristics of plants over time to make them better crops and more nourishing food. Such selective breeding changes the genetic composition of the plants over time. Plant breeding has been practiced for thousands of years, since near the beginning of human civilization. It is now practiced worldwide by individuals such as gardeners and farmers, or by professional plant breeders employed by organizations such as government institutions, universities, crop-specific industry associations or research centers.