Abstract
The rediscovery of Mendel’s laws of genetics in 1900 opened up a new era in crop breeding in general, and wheat breeding in particular. Although the art of plant breeding is as old as the beginning of agriculture nearly 12000 years ago, systematic research in the areas of genetics and cytogenetics, which commenced in the early part of the 20th century, created uncommon opportunities for improving the productivity, profitability, stability and sustainability of wheat production. Even before Mendel (1822–1884), plant hybridizers like Kolreuter, Knight, Gartner and Burbank were able to produce improved varieties of crops through careful observation and selection. Even the concept of sustainability to which we now attach great importance was recognised long ago as essential for sustained agricultural progress. For example, the Roman Farmer, Varro, explained the basic principles underlying sustainable agriculture in the following words over 2000 years ago.
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Swaminathan, M.S. (2001). A Century of Mendelian Breeding: Impact on Wheat. In: Bedö, Z., Láng, L. (eds) Wheat in a Global Environment. Developments in Plant Breeding, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3674-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3674-9_2
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