Author : Lantican, Ricardo

Summary : Plant breeding is aimed at improving the hereditary make-up of crops by putting together as many combinations of characters of economic importance into single varietal entities which could meet the following objectives: 1) to continually increase yield potentials of crops by changing plant architecture; grain-stover (stem and leaves) ratio has increased in rice from (0.3 - 0.6) to 0.9 - 1.3); the increase in corn is from 0.4 to 0.7; use of F1 hybrids in rice and corn gives a 25% increase in yields; 2) to improve eating and nutritional quality of products; 3) to meet the needs of processing industries; 4) to improve plant resistance to pests and diseases; 5) to improve resistance to adverse environments of low pH, high salinity, soil infertility; 6) to improve relationship with N-fixing organisms (Rhizobia, Azospirillum, Azoto-bacter bacteria) and Mycorrhiza.