Our requirement for plant breeders to be successful has never been
greater. However one views the forecasted numbers for future population
growth we will need, in the immediate future, to be feeding, clothing
and housing many more people than we do, inadequately, at present. Plant
breeding represents the most valuable strategy in increasing our
productivity in a way that is sustainable and environmentally sensitive.
Plant breeding can rightly be considered as one of the oldest
multidisciplinary subjects that is known to humans. It was practised by
people who first started to carry out a settled form of agriculture. The
art, as it must have been at that stage, was applied without any formal
underlying framework, but achieved dramatic results, as witnessed by the
forms of cultivated plants we have today. We are now learning how to
apply successfully the results of yet imperfect scientific knowledge.
This knowledge is, however, rapidly developing, particularly in areas of
tissue culture, biotechnology and molecular biology. Plant breeding's
inherent multifaceted nature means that alongside obvious subject areas
like genetics we also need to consider areas such as: statistics,
physiology, plant pathology, entomology, biochemistry, weed science,
quality, seed characteristics, repro- ductive biology, trial design,
selection and computing. It therefore seems apparent that modern plant
breeders need to have a grasp of wide range of scientific knowledge and
expertise if they are successfully to a exploit the techniques,
protocols and strategies which are open to them.
