Conventional Plant Breeding to Modern Plant Breeding: Evolution, Achievements, and Limitations

Plant breedingPlant breeding originated in antiquity when humans domesticated crops about 10,000 years ago. Their efforts were advanced to a new level by early plant breedingPlant breeding pioneers armed with rudimentary information about reproduction and heredity. Then came Gregor Mendel, who laid down the scientific basis of heredity. Along with Charles Darwin's Theory of evolution by natural selection, classical genetics revolutionized the art and science of plant breedingPlant breeding in the twentieth century. However, the technologies of that period need to be improved to sustain the plant breedingPlant breeding industry in developing crop varieties for the twenty-first century. Not only is the global population on the increase, but the effects of climate changeClimate change continue to modify the agricultural landscape, making the task of developing new varieties more complicated. As knowledge abounds, new technologies and techniques emerge to revolutionize plant breedingPlant breeding in the twenty-first century. Innovations notwithstanding, modern plant breeders must remain conversant with conventional plant breedingConventional plant breeding approaches that remain the bedrock of crop improvementCrop improvement. Modern tools help the breeding programBreeding programs to be more efficient and effective in getting a new and more productive variety to market more quickly. Conventional selection techniques, hybridizationHybridization, and breeding schemes or methods are relevant today. Modern technologies like DNA markerDNA markers-assisted selection, genomic-assisted breeding, whole genome sequencingGenome sequencing, speed breedingSpeed breeding, RNAiRNA interference (RNAi) technology, and CRISPR/Cas9 genome editingGenome editing technology are revolutionizing 21st-century breeding. This chapter reviews the evolution of plant breedingPlant breeding technologies and techniques and their successes, prospects, and challenges.