Global Plant Breeding

Plant breeding is everywhere in the civilized world, providing new cultivars (cultivated varieties) of useful crops for commercial growers, subsistence farmers, and home gardeners. Agriculture is the foundation of civilization, and plant breeding is the foundation of agriculture. Plant breeders work with field crops (grains, legumes, forages, roots, and fiber), forest crops (lumber, paper, and veneer), horticultural crops (vegetables, fruits, flowers, ornamentals, and turf), and with crops producing medicines or providing environmental remediation. Plant breeders are involved in the collection of germplasm (seeds and other propagules of land races, local cultivars, undeveloped populations, and wild relatives) around the world, especially from centers of diversity for useful crops. They preserve, evaluate, and distribute the germplasm to those interested in working with the crop. Plant breeders develop new cultivars having higher yield, earlier maturity, better adaptation, improved quality, and higher resistance to diseases, insects, and environmental stresses. Along with other agricultural researchers and extensionists, plant breeders have provided the world's population with plentiful food, improved health and nutrition, and beautiful landscapes.