The various steps involved in plant breeding are:
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Collection of variability: It involves collection of variability of the species
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Evaluation and selection of parents: It involves selecting individual plants having the best desirable characters from the genetically mixed population. Pure lines are created consisting of individuals which are all homozygous with negligible phenotypic variations. The selected plants are used in hybridization.
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Hybridization: It is one of the most important methods of plant breeding. It involves producing new varieties of crops with desirable combination of characters by crossing two or more parents having unlike genetic constitution.
For example, suppose a variety of rice has a high yield and good quality but has poor disease resistance capacity. There is another variety of rice which maybe poor in yield and quality but has high disease resistance. It is the objective of hybridization to create a progeny such that the good traits be incorporated into one progeny and the hybrid thus formed shows the desired combination of good traits (e.g. good quality, high yield and higher disease resistance power) which is then multiplied for commercial use.
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Selection and testing of recombinants: Plants having desirable characteristics are selected at every generation
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Testing, release and commercialization: Evaluation of the newly selected lines is carried out in terms of the yield (both qualitatively and quantitatively), disease resistance and other agronomic traits. This is followed by testing in the fields and its comparison with the local crop is done after which it is allowed to be released.
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Image: http://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/gepts/pb143/Lec20/Breeding%20steps.jpg
