Scope of plant breeding (Future Prospects)

• With knowledge of classical genetics, number of varieties have been evolved in different crop plants.
• In order to combat the global alarm created by population explosion, the food front has to be strengthened which is serious challenge to those scientists concerned with agriculture.
• The application of biotechnology to field crop has already led to the field testing of genetically modified crop plants.
• Genes from varied organisms may be expected to boost the performance of crops especially with regard to their resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses.
• In addition, crop plants are likely to be cultivated for recovery of valuable compounds like pharmaceuticals produced by genes introduced into them through genetic engineering.
• It may be pointed out that in Europe hirudin, an anti-thrombin protein is already being produced from transgenic Brassica napus.