Heterosis and Hybrid Seed Production in Agronomic Crops discusses how heterosis or “hybrid vigor” has played a major role in improving crop productivity and quality in order to feed the ever-increasing human population, particularly in developing countries. Plant breeders, agronomists, seed producers, and farmers will discover why the development of hybrids in the world's major food crops and why the methods of hybrid seed production are critical for achieving this goal. This landmark book deals with heterosis and hybrid seed production of major agronomic crops such as wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, cotton, sunflower, and rapeseed. Through Heterosis and Hybrid Seed Production in Agronomic Crops, you will discover valuable information on hybrid seed production methods that is not available in any other single volume. This unique book contains relevant and essential information about important procedures to help increase crop yield, including: methods for deriving second cycle inbred lines for hybrid maize possibilities for hybrid seed production in wheat techniques of hybrid sorghum seed production production of hybrid seeds using male sterile lines of cotton agronomic management in seed production plots of sunflower seed production technology of hybrid rapeseed advances in hybrid seed production technology of rice in China Heterosis and Hybrid Seed Production in Agronomic Crops gives you a global perspective on essential food crops in all parts of the world. This informative guide will help you use hybrid seed production methods with important agricultural crops and increase the quality of these vital and essential food sources.

Heterosis and Hybrid Seed Production in Agronomic Crops discusses how heterosis or “hybrid vigor” has played a major role in improving crop productivity and quality in order to feed the ever-increasing human population, particularly in developing countries. Plant breeders, agronomists, seed producers, and farmers will discover why the development of hybrids in the world's major food crops and why the methods of hybrid seed production are critical for achieving this goal. This landmark book deals with heterosis and hybrid seed production of major agronomic crops such as wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, cotton, sunflower, and rapeseed. Through Heterosis and Hybrid Seed Production in Agronomic Crops, you will discover valuable information on hybrid seed production methods that is not available in any other single volume. This unique book contains relevant and essential information about important procedures to help increase crop yield, including: methods for deriving second cycle inbred lines for hybrid maize possibilities for hybrid seed production in wheat techniques of hybrid sorghum seed production production of hybrid seeds using male sterile lines of cotton agronomic management in seed production plots of sunflower seed production technology of hybrid rapeseed advances in hybrid seed production technology of rice in China Heterosis and Hybrid Seed Production in Agronomic Crops gives you a global perspective on essential food crops in all parts of the world. This informative guide will help you use hybrid seed production methods with important agricultural crops and increase the quality of these vital and essential food sources.

Heterosis breeding and hybrid rice; Male sterility systems in rice; Organization of hybrid rice breeding program using CMS system; Source nursery; CMS maintenance and evaluation nursery; Testcross nursery; Restorer purification nursery; Backcross nursery; Combining ability nursery; Breeding rice hybrids with TGMS system; Nucleus and breeder seed production of A, B, R, and TGMS lines; Seed production of experimental rice hybrids; Evaluation of experimental rice hybrids; Improvement of parental lines; Methods of enhancing the levels of heterosis; Quality assurance procedures in hybrid rice breeding.

While preparing the first edition of this textbook I attended an extension short course on writing agricultural publications. The message I remember was "select your audience and write to it. " There has never been any doubt about the audience for which this textbook was written, the introductory course in crop breeding. In addition, it has become a widely used reference for the graduate plant-breeding student and the practicing plant breeder. In its prepa ration, particular attention has been given to advances in plant-breeding theo ry and their utility in plant-breeding practice. The blend of the theoretical with the practical has set this book apart from other plant-breeding textbooks. The basic structure and the objectives of the earlier editions remain un changed. These objectives are (1) to review essential features of plant re production, Mendelian genetic principles, and related genetic developments applicable in plant-breeding practice; (2) to describe and evaluate established and new plant-breeding procedures and techniques, and (3) to discuss plant breeding objectives with emphasis on the importance of proper choice of objec tive for achieving success in variety development. Because plant-breeding activities are normally organized around specific crops, there are chapters describing breeding procedures and objectives for the major crop plants; the crops were chosen for their economic importance or diversity in breeding sys tems. These chapters provide a broad overview of the kinds of problems with which the breeder must cope.

When trying to solicit authors for this book it became apparent that the causal factors for heterosis at the physiological and biochemical level are today almost as obscure as they were 30 years ago. Though biometrical-genetical analyses point to dispersion of complementary genes - not overdominance - as the major cause of the phenomenon, plant breeders' experience still suggests a cautious, pragmatic approach to the dominance-overdominance controversy in breeding hybrid cultivars. Thus we are faced with a striking discordance between our limited comprehension of the causal factors and mechanism of heter osis on the one hand, and the extensive agricultural practice of utiliza tion of hybrid vigor on the other. Such utilization is the result of the economic value of hybrid combinations displaying superior yields and qualities as well as stability of performance, of benefits derived in breeding programs, and of the enhanced varietal protection of proprietary rights. No comprehensive and critical analysis of the phenomenon of heterosis in economic plants has been published for the last three decades since the now classical book Heterosis, edited by J . W. Gowen (Iowa State College Press, Ames, Iowa, 1952). The present book attempts to fill the gap and to assess the status of our present knowl edge of the concept, the basis, the extent, and the application of heterosis in economic plants.

Explore the momentous contributions of hybrid crop varieties with worldwide experts. Topics include an overview, quantitative genetics, genetic diversity, biochemistry and molecular biology, methodologies, commercial strategies, and examples from numerous crops.