Plant breeding in the turn of the millennium

Abstract

The transition from hunting and gathering to farming happened about 10,000 years ago, independently and diffusely in several places in the world. Plant breeders were responsible for genetic progress in a number of crop species. It included hybrids, the introgression of wild species genes and also the Green Revolution, which started in the 1960's with the cereals. The varieties developed by breeding, along with the use of new crop technology (fertilization, soil tillage, etc.) changed the status of some countries from importers to exporters of food. In the turn of the millennium, plant breeding, faces new challenges in a globalized world, but it has new tools to deal with them. Notwithstanding the present contributions of plant breeding and crop management, its future contributions may be even greater. The partnership being developed between plant breeding and biotechnology will assure a more consistent and predictable genetic progress. Current contributions of biotechnology have arrived for many crops in different places of the world. Varieties developed by transformation are grown in large acreage in some countries. Some concerns have also arisen from the use of GMOs. For example, the introgression of a gene for insect resistance 4 into many different species could result in an undesirable endemic risk, here called interespecific biotechnological vulnerability. Another concern is that biotechnology race may create yield plateaus in programs using genes pyramiding for all new traits made available by biotechnology, resulting in what is called genetic gridlock. Nevertheless, the benefits of using biotechnology will substantially enhance the contributions of plant breeding to human life. © 1998, Paraná Institute of Technology Publication.