The document provides an overview of plant breeding activities and methods, emphasizing five key steps: creation of variation, selection, evaluation, multiplication, and distribution. Each step plays a critical role in developing improved plant varieties, from generating genetic diversity to ultimately providing certified seeds to farmers. Successful plant breeding relies on the identification of desirable traits and thorough evaluation against existing varieties.

1. Plant Breeding
Dr. Ravindra D. Madhekar
Assistant professor,
Dept. Of Botany,
S. B. E. S. College of Science,
Aurangabad (Maharashtra)
Activities

2. Methods of Plant Breeding
1. Domestication, Plant Introduction and acclimatization
2. Selection
3. Hybridization
4. Mutation breeding

3. Activities in Plant Plant Breeding
Desirable changes in genotype brought about by inter-related, inter-dependent
activities.
1. Creation of variation
2. Selection
3. Evaluation
4. Multiplication
5. Distribution

4. 1. Creation of variation
• Variation means differences among individuals of a population or species for a
specific character.
• source of raw material for selection.
• These are heritable and useful in selection.
• Success of a breeding programme depends on it.
• It can be done by domestication, germplasm collection, plant introduction,
hybridization, polyploidy, mutation, somaclonal variation and genetic
engineering.

5. 2. Selection
• Identification and isolation of plants with the desirable combination
of characters from population.
• Carried out on the basis of phenotypic characters.
• Yields an improved line/strain.
• Efficiency of this activity determines the success of the breeding
programme.

6. 3. Evaluation
The newly selected lines/strains/populations are tested for yield and other traits and
their performance is compared with existing best varieties called Checks. If the new
lines/strain/population shows superior performance to the checks, it is released and notified
as a new variety.
4. Multiplication
This step concerns with large scale certified seed production of the released and
notified variety.
• 5. Distribution
Certified seed is ultimately sold to the farmers who use it for commercial crop
cultivation.