Briefly describe various steps involved in plant breeding.

Explanation

The main steps in breeding a new genetic variety of a crop are:
(1). Collection of Variability :- Genetic variability is the root of any breeding programme.
Collection and preservation of all the different wild varieties, species and relatives of cultivated species is a prerequisite for effective exploitation of natural genes available in the populations.
The entire collection having all the diverse alleles for all genes in a given crop is called Germplasm collection.
(2). Evaluation and selection of parents :- The germplasm is evaluated so as to identify plants with desirable characters. the selected plants are multiplied and are used. purelines are created wherever desirable.
(3) Cross hybridisation among the selected parents :- After emasculatio (Removal of Anthers from bisexual flower of a female parent) the female flowrs are enclosed in a polythene bag to prevent undesired cross pollination.
pollen grains are collected from the male parent with the help of a brush and are transferred to the surface of the stigma and thus cross pollination is affected artificially.