Explain various steps in hybridization of crop plants.

The three steps involved in hybridization are:

(i) Introduction — This refers to the transportation of crop plants from the place of cultivation to the place where they were grown earlier.

(ii) Selection — This process involves the selection of most desirable offspring of a variety of plant for controlled propagation.

(iii) Hybridisation — It involves the crossing between genetically dissimilar plants to produce a new kind. Crossing may be between two different varieties (intervarietal cross — breeding) or between the two different species of the same genus (inter specific cross — breeding) and between different genera (intergeneric cross — breeding).