Overview
- Authors:
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Izak Bos
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Department of Plant Breeding, Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands
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Peter Caligari
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Department of Agricultural Botany, The University of Reading, UK
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Table of contents (19 chapters)
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Back Matter
Pages 330-347
About this book
Our requirement for plant breeders to be successful has never been greater. However one views the forecasted numbers for future population growth we will need, in the immediate future, to be feeding, clothing and housing many more people than we do, inadequately, at present. Plant breeding represents the most valuable strategy in increasing our productivity in a way that is sustainable and environmentally sensitive. Plant breeding can rightly be considered as one of the oldest multidisciplin ary subjects that is known to humans. It was practised by people who first started to carry out a settled form of agriculture. The art, as it must have been at that stage, was applied without any formal underlying framework, but achieved dramatic results, as witnessed by the forms of cultivated plants we have today. We are now learning how to apply successfully the results of yet imperfect scientific knowledge. This knowledge is, however, rapidly develop ing, particularly in areas of tissue culture, biotechnology and molecular biology. Plant breeding's inherent multifaceted nature means that alongside obvious subject areas like genetics we also need to consider areas such as: statistics, physiology, plant pathology, entomology, biochemistry, weed science, quality, seed characteristics, reproductive biology, trial design, se lection and computing.
Reviews
...it does give a lot of useful information about the application of theory in breeding programmes and can...be recommended as an additional textbook for students and research workers. - Acta Botanica Neerlandica
Authors and Affiliations
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Department of Plant Breeding, Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands
Izak Bos
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Department of Agricultural Botany, The University of Reading, UK
Peter Caligari
