Britannica
Sources used in this answer
Which traits do plant breeders seek to improve in food crops?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Plant breeding
Triticale is a hybrid of rye and wheat.
Plant breeders aim to develop ideal crops by combining a wide range of desirable characteristics to enhance productivity, adaptability, and utility. Key traits sought for improvement include:
- Resilience and Adaptation: Breeders prioritize resistance to diseases and insects, as well as tolerance to environmental stressors like heat, frost, drought, and soil salinity.12
- Yield and Quality: A primary goal is increasing crop yields and improving nutritional quality, such as enhancing amino acid content or vitamin levels through biofortification.132
- Mechanization and Handling: To support modern agriculture, breeders select for uniformity in growth rate, size, and maturity, which facilitates mechanical harvesting and easier handling.13
- Range Expansion: Breeders work to modify crops to thrive in new geographic regions, such as developing earlier-maturing varieties to allow cultivation in cooler climates.3
- Efficiency: Emerging research focuses on increasing photosynthetic efficiency and enabling traits like nitrogen fixation.2
Ultimately, these efforts are essential for promoting global food security by creating hardier, more productive varieties capable of withstanding changing environmental conditions.1