You are a Botanist working in the area of plant breeding. Describe the various steps that you will undertake to release a new variety.

Steps in plant breeding to release a new variety:

• Germplasm collection.
• Evaluation and selection of parents.
• Cross breeding of two parents.
• Selection of superior offspring.
• Testing and release of new varieties.

Germplasm collection:

Germplasm refers to the seeds/plants having all possible alleles for all the genes in a given crop. Collection of the diverse germplasm ensures that plant breeders have the whole range of possible genetic variabilities of a crop plant.

Evaluation and selection of parents:

The whole available germplasm is screened for desirable traits that are to be incorporated into the new variety. The plants chosen as parents are self-pollinated (pollen from the anther of a flower is transferred to the stigma of the same flower or different flower of the same plant) to increase homozygosity (presence of similar alleles for a particular character). This results in the generation of a pure line.

Crossbreeding of two parents:

The process of hybridisation involves crossing between two pure line parents having desired characteristics with the help of artificial cross pollination (pollen from the flower of the plant designated as male parent is transferred to the stigma of the flower of the plant designated as female parent). The progeny obtained are called hybrids.

Selection of superior variety:

The seeds produced by only those plants in the progeny, which show the desired combination of superior characteristics of both the parents, are selected for raising the future generation. This process is continued until the whole population exhibits the desired combination of superior characteristics.

Testing and release of new varieties:

The new cultivars are first evaluated for their yield and other desirable qualities like disease resistance and tolerance to environmental stresses. The evaluation is performed by growing them in research fields under conditions like ideal fertiliser application and other crop management practices. The cultivars which successfully grow in the research laboratories are now grown in farmer’s fields for at least three growing seasons across different parts of the country representing the various agro climatic zones. The new cultivar is evaluated in comparison to the best available local crop cultivar in terms of quality and cost. Once the cultivar passes all the tests performed, it is released into the market.