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The potato (Solanum tuberosum) is the world's fourth most important
food crop after maize, rice and wheat with 377 million tonnes
fresh-weight of tubers produced in 2016 from 19.2 million hectares
of land, in 163 countries, giving a global average yield of 19.6 t
ha-1 (http://faostat.fao.org). About 62% of production (234 million
tonnes) was in Asia (191), Africa (25) and Latin America (18) as a
result of steady increases in recent years, particularly in China
and India. As a major food crop, the potato has an important role
to play in the United Nations "2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development" which started on 1 January 2016
(http://faostat.fao.org). By 2030 the aim is to "ensure access by
all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable
situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious and sufficient
food all year round". By then, the world population is expected to
reach 8.5 billion and continue to increase to 9.7 billion in 2050.
For potatoes, the need is to increase production and improve
nutritional value during a period of climate change, a key aspect
of which will be the breeding of new cultivars for a wide range of
target environments and consumers. The aim of the book is to help
this endeavour by providing detailed information in three parts on
both the theory and practice of potato breeding. Part I deals with
the history of potato improvement and with potato genetics. Part II
deals with breeding objectives, divided into improving yield,
quality traits and resistance to the most important diseases and
pests of potatoes. Part III deals with breeding methods: first, the
use of landraces and wild relatives of potato in introgression
breeding, base broadening and population improvement; second,
breeding clonally propagated cultivars as a way to deliver potato
improvement to farmers' fields; third, as an alternative, breeding
potato cultivars for propagation through true potato seed; and
fourth, gene editing and genetic transformation as ways of making
further improvements to already successful and widely grown
cultivars. Included are marker-assisted introgression and selection
of specific alleles, genomic selection of many unspecified alleles
and diploid F1 hybrid breeding.
This book aims to help plant breeders by reviewing past
achievements, currently successful practices, and emerging methods
and techniques. Theoretical considerations are also presented to
strike the right balance between being as simple as possible but as
complex as necessary. The United Nations predicts that the global
human population will continue rising to 9.0 billion by 2050. World
food production will need to increase between 70-100 per cent in
just 40 years. First generation bio-fuels are also using crops and
cropland to produce energy rather than food. In addition, land area
used for agriculture may remain static or even decrease as a result
of degradation and climate change, despite more land being
theoretically available, unless crops can be bred which tolerate
associated abiotic stresses. Lastly, it is unlikely that steps can
be taken to mitigate all of the climate change predicted to occur
by 2050, and beyond, and hence adaptation of farming systems and
crop production will be required to reduce predicted negative
effects on yields that will occur without crop adaptation.
Substantial progress will therefore be required in bridging the
yield gap between what is currently achieved per unit of land and
what should be possible in future, with the best farming methods
and best storage and transportation of food, given the availability
of suitably adapted cultivars, including adaptation to climate
change. My book is divided into four parts: Part I is an historical
introduction; Part II deals with the origin of genetic variation by
mutation and recombination of DNA; Part III explains how the mating
system of a crop species determines the genetic structure of its
landraces; Part IV considers the three complementary options for
future progress: use of sexual reproduction in further conventional
breeding, base broadening and introgression; mutation breeding; and
genetically modified crops.
This book aims to help plant breeders by reviewing past
achievements, currently successful practices, and emerging methods
and techniques. Theoretical considerations are also presented to
strike the right balance between being as simple as possible but as
complex as necessary. The United Nations predicts that the global
human population will continue rising to 9.0 billion by 2050. World
food production will need to increase between 70-100 per cent in
just 40 years. First generation bio-fuels are also using crops and
cropland to produce energy rather than food. In addition, land area
used for agriculture may remain static or even decrease as a result
of degradation and climate change, despite more land being
theoretically available, unless crops can be bred which tolerate
associated abiotic stresses. Lastly, it is unlikely that steps can
be taken to mitigate all of the climate change predicted to occur
by 2050, and beyond, and hence adaptation of farming systems and
crop production will be required to reduce predicted negative
effects on yields that will occur without crop adaptation.
Substantial progress will therefore be required in bridging the
yield gap between what is currently achieved per unit of land and
what should be possible in future, with the best farming methods
and best storage and transportation of food, given the availability
of suitably adapted cultivars, including adaptation to climate
change. My book is divided into four parts: Part I is an historical
introduction; Part II deals with the origin of genetic variation by
mutation and recombination of DNA; Part III explains how the mating
system of a crop species determines the genetic structure of its
landraces; Part IV considers the three complementary options for
future progress: use of sexual reproduction in further conventional
breeding, base broadening and introgression; mutation breeding; and
genetically modified crops.
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