Achievements of Plant Breeding in India

India's own history of plant breeding since Independence illustrates every objective described in the previous sections being put into practice, and is the direct ancestor of the country's Green Revolution.

Wheat

Semi-dwarf, high-yielding wheat varieties bred in the 1960s using dwarfing genetic material originally traced to Mexican breeding programmes (associated with the Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug) were rapidly adapted and released for Indian conditions as varieties such as Sonalika and Kalyan Sona, and remain the historical starting point most often cited for India's Green Revolution. Later wheat breeding added disease resistance -- the variety Himgiri, for instance, was bred specifically for resistance to leaf and stripe rust, two of wheat's most damaging fungal diseases in the Himalayan and hill wheat-growing tracts.

Rice

High-yielding, semi-dwarf rice varieties such as Jaya and Ratna were bred and released through the same period, substantially raising India's rice output per hectare.

Sugarcane

India's own sugarcane breeding combined the thin-stemmed, low-sugar-yield but locally hardy Saccharum barberi (traditionally grown in North India) with the thick-stemmed, high-sugar-yield but comparatively tender tropical species Saccharum officinarum, producing hybrid canes that bring the higher yield of the tropical species into the North Indian growing tract without losing hardiness.

Vegetables

Breeding has also targeted vegetable crops directly useful to a mixed farming system and diet -- for example, cauliflower varieties such as Pusa Shubhra and Pusa Snowball K-1, bred for early maturity and better resistance to common cauliflower diseases. …