The present book entitled “Commercial Plant Breeding-II-Field Crops” is a follow-up book after “Commercial Plant Breeding-I-Vegetable Crops” and is meant for the course Commercial Plant Breeding listed under elective courses of State Agricultural Universities. The contents of this book include plant breeding approaches and seed production procedures with emphasis on hybrid seed production and related activities as practiced by seed companies across major field crops. The proposed course as per ICAR-V Dean Committee ‘Commercial Plant Breeding’ includes both field and vegetable crops in the same course. However, it was considered prudent to prepare two books, one dealing with vegetable crops and the other dealing with field crops, separately as nationally and internationally these two groups of the crops are dealt with separately at all levels. Even, private seed companies and ICAR institutes and state agricultural universities deal with these two groups of crops separately for teaching/research purposes. Therefore, it was agreed with the publisher that there will be two books; the first dealing with vegetable crops and the second dealing, with field crops and that is how ‘Commercial Plant Breeding2-Field Crops' has been prepared in continuation with ‘Commercial Plant Breeding-II-Vegetable Crops’ which is already out.

Commercial Crop Breeding The term commercial crop breeding is straightaway equivalent to ‘commercial plant breeding’ and remains largely plant breeding with slight twist that commercial plant breeding aims at delivering commercial products to be delivered to the end users that is the farmers as per the need of the consumers/ markets. Thus, the farmers plant those products (open-pollinated cultivars and hybrids) which are easily accepted by the consumers and which are easy to be handled by the traders as the products reach to the traders and then from traders to the retailers and ultimately to the consumers.

Indian Council of Food and Agriculture organized SEED WORLD-2019 (World Seed Trade and Technology Congress) from 18-21 September, 2019 at The Hotel Lalit Ashok, Bangalore and presented SEED INDUSTRY SCENARIO REPORT (ICFA, 2019; www.icfa.org.inwww.seedworld.in). The information as given below is largely based on this report and other presentations made during the congress, particularly one by Kapur (2019).

Any commercial plant breeding programme run by the private seed companies typically called as Research and Development (R & D) is carried out through various models operating. There is no fixed organizational set up and different companies adopt the working set up as per size of their programme, availability of manpower and resources, area of the breeding station and several other considerations. One thing is clear that any commercial plant breeding programme will have more numbers of crop breeders than the supporting scientists.

Varietal release and notification comes under the purview of the Seeds Act which aims to provide for regulating the quality of certain notified seeds for sale and for marketing and for the matters connected therewith. Released and notified varieties are offered for seed certification by the seed certification agencies which ensure that the varieties under certification meet certain prescribed field and seed standards failing which they stand to be rejected during the process of seed certification.

The Seed Act 1966 was passed by the Indian Parliament on 29th December 1966 and it came into force from 2nd October, 1969. In addition, Seed Regulation Order was also passed in December 1983.

Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act-2001 (PPVFRA-2001) was enacted by government of India in 2001 to create a sui generis system of providing a legal framework as an IPR mechanism to protect the varieties of crop plants in India along with grant of breeders’ and farmers’ rights in the interest of all the stakeholders and also to comply with WTO guidelines to which India is a legal signatory.

The increasing concerns about dwindling biological resources globally led to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992. This convention for the first time, recognized sovereign rights of States over their biological resources and emphasized that access to genetic resources should be only for environmentally sound purposes and should be subject to national legislations. The access has to be on mutually agreed terms which inter-alia would include recognition of associated Traditional Knowledge of indigenous communities and equitable benefit sharing arrangements.

In order to provide for the establishment of an effective system for protection of plant varieties, plant breeders’ rights and the farmers’ rights and to encourage the development of new varieties of plants it has been considered necessary to put in place a legal protection mechanism the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001 has been enacted in India (www.plantauthority. gov.in). For the purposes of this Act, Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority has been established and is located at NASC Complex, DPS Marg, Opp - Todapur, New Delhi-110 012.

A significant development in the field of agricultural research in India is the formulation of All India Coordinated Research Projects (AICRPs), initially for the improvement of agricultural crops, but later extended to all aspects of crop husbandry.

The 15 CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) Research Centers are independent, non-profit research organizations, conducting innovative research. Home to more than 8,000 scientists, researchers, technicians, and staff, CGIAR research works to create a better future for the world’s poor. Each Center has its own charter, board of trustees, director general, and staff. CGIAR Research Centers are responsible for hands-on research programmes and operations guided by policies and research directions set by the System Management Board.

Biotechnology is defined as a set of tools that uses living organisms or parts of living organisms to make or modify a product, improve plants, trees or animals or develop microorganism for specific uses. Agricultural biotechnology is the term used in crops and livestock improvement through biotechnology tools. Biotechnology encompasses a number of tools and elements of conventional plant breeding techniques, bioinformatics, microbiology, molecular genetics, biochemistry, plant physiology and molecular biology.

Rice (Oryza sativa L., 2n = 2x = 24, monocot, family Poaceae formerly called as Gramineae, grass family, self-pollinated crop) is one of the Four Big Crops (rice, wheat, corn and soybean) globally and is the world’s most important food crop after wheat and corn. In crop year 2018, there was around 167 million hectares of paddy (rough, un-milled rice) cultivated area worldwide with production of 782 million tons resulting into a productivity of 4.68 tons/ha. The top ten countries in rice production during this period globally were China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Philippines, Brazil and Pakistan. Chinese production was 212 million tones followed by India with 172 million tons (FAOSTAT). Indian production of 172 million tons of rough rice can be converted into milled rice by multiplying a conversion factor of 0.67 and this way it comes to 115 million tons.

Wheat also known as bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L. em. Thell, 2n = 6x = 42, family Poaceae formerly Gramineae or grass family, a self-pollinated crop), second only to rice as source of calorie has been grown on 218 million ha with production of 765 million tons globally during 2019-20. Top five countries, namely, China (135 million tons), India (103 million tons), Russia (77 million tons), USA (51 million tons) and Canada (34 million tons) account for 65% of the global production. Other major countries growing wheat are Ukraine (28 million tons), Pakistan (26 million tons), Australia (24 million tons), Argentina (21 million tons) and Turkey (18 million tons). Wheat is eaten by 2.5 billion people in 89 countries and distributed from Scandinavia to South America and across Asia. Global annual wheat trade is worth USD 50 billion.

Maize or corn (Zea mays, 2n = 2x = 20, Family Gramineae now called as Poaceae, cross-pollinated crop) is produced more than any other grain crop globally. In the Western world, the term maize is used interchangeably with corn. The reason for this is that all grains were called corn under early British and American trade and the name was retained for maize because it was the most common grain in commerce. Although the origin of the word maize is also controversial, it is generally accepted that the word has its origin in Arawac tribes of the indigenous people of the Caribbean. On the basis of this common name, Linnaeus included the name as species epithet in the botanical classification Zea (Zea mays L.) as reported by Smith (2001).

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br. 2n = 2x = 14, grass family Poaceae, cross-pollinated and with C4 photosynthetic path-way) is the stable food for millions in the semi-arid tropics. It is adapted to drought and poor soil fertility. Pearl millet is a dependable nutritious source of food for millions in marginal agricultural areas. It is the world’s hardiest warm-season cereal crop. It can survive and produce grain even on the least fertile soils in the driest regions, on highly acidic and saline soils, and in the hottest climates. Pearl millet covers an estimated 31 million hectares worldwide with production of 30 million tons and productivity of almost 1 ton/ha and is grown in more than 30 countries located in the arid and semi-arid tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moecnch, 2n = 2x = 20, grass family Gramineae/ Poaceae, often cross-pollinated, 6% cross-pollination on an average, 730Mb genome, about 25% the size of maize or sugarcane) is a staple food crop for millions of poor people in the semi-arid tropics of Africa and Asia. It is one of the important dry-land crops grown in marginal soils and a source of feed, fodder and bio-fuel apart from food. It is a short-day C4 plant, and its easy adaptability to hot and dry agro-ecologies makes it a climate change-resilient crop. Sorghum is considered as an often cross-pollinated species, with outcrossing up to 6 % depending on the genotype and growing conditions.

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan, (L.) Millspaugh, 2n = 2x = 22, an often crosspollinated crop with 20 – 70% cross-pollination, family-pea family Leguminosae or Fabaceae, genome size 808 Mbp) is a short-lived perennial shrub that is traditionally cultivated as an annual crop in developing countries.. It is grown in Asia, Eastern and Southern Africa, Latin America and Caribbean countries. On an average, it is cultivated worldwide on 4.92 million hectares (M ha) with an annual production of 3.65 Mt giving a productivity of 741 kg/ ha. India is the largest producer followed by Myanmar and Eastern and Southern Africa (principally Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a self-pollinating diploid (2n=2x=16) with a genome size of 740 Mbp and belongs to family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae). In a scientific advance involving scientists from more than 20 research organizations, sequencing of the chickpea genome was recently completed for 90 chickpea genotypes, including several wild species. The researchers responsible for the work, led by ICRISAT, succeeded in identifying more than 28,000 genes and several million genetic markers that scientists expect will lead to the development of superior varieties.

Green gram or mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek, var. radiata, 2n = 2x = 22, a self-pollinated crop belonging to Family Leguminosae or Fabaceae) occupies globally 7.3 million ha area with production of 5.3 million tons (2015-17) resulting into a productivity of 726 kg/ha with India and Myanmar each supplying about 30% of the global production. China contributes about 16% and Indonesia 5% of the global production. It is relatively tolerant of heat and drought and the grains are a good source of protein and iron for human nutrition. In East and Southeast Asia, it is consumed as nutritious bean sprouts and in South Asia as dahl.

Black gram (Vigna mungo, L. Hepper, 2 n = 2 x = 22, family Leguminosae/ Fabaceae, essentially self-pollinated) has a global production of 3.2 million tons where India is the largest producer accounting for more than 70% of the global production followed by Myanmar and Thailand. Indian black gram area, production and productivity in 2010-11 were 3.25 million ha, 1.76 million tons and 522 kg/ha. The corresponding figures for 2015-16 were 3.62 million ha, 1.95 million tons and 537 kg/ha and the corresponding figures for 2016- 17 were 4.48 million ha, 2.83 million tons and 632 kg/ha. For 2017-18 (IV advance estimate), the figures were 5.44 million ha, 3.56 million tons and 655 kg/ha (Directorate of Pulses Development, 2018). These figures show a steady rise in black gram area, production and productivity over the years. This is the third important pulse crop in India after gram and pigeonpea. The three states namely, Madhya Pradesh, UP and Andhra Pradesh alone account for about 50% of the black gram area and production in India.

Lentil (Lens culinaris, 2 n = 2 x = 14, family Fabaceae/Leguminosae, subfamily Papilionaceae, essentially self-pollinated annual) has average global area, production and yield during 2015-17 as 5.56 million ha, 6.55 million tons of production and 1178 kg/ha as per FAOSTAT. The top ten lentil producing countries globally are Canada, India, Turkey, USA, Nepal, Australia, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, China, and Kazakhstan. India produced 0.94 million tons of lentil from 1.60 million ha with a productivity of 587 kg/ha during 2010-11. The corresponding figures for the year 2018-19 are 1.56 million tons, 1.51 million ha and 1033 kg/ha indicating a significant gain in the productivity over the years (Directorate of Economics and Statistics, 2020). The top states in lentil production in India are Madhya Pradesh (40%), UP (30%), West Bengal (11%) and Bihar (9%). Rest of the states is insignificant. The plant was given the scientific name Lens culinaris in 1787 by Medikus, a German botanist and physician.

Soybean (Glycine max L. Merr. 2n = 2x = 40, essentially a self-pollinated oil seed crop, family Leguminosae), also known as a miracle crop with on average 40% protein and 20% oil and one of the globally “Four Big Crops” namely rice, wheat, corn and soybean. As per FAOSTAT-2016, global soybean acreage, production and productivity are 121 million ha, 335 million tons and 2755 kg per ha for the year 2016. As per this statistics, top ten soybean producing countries are USA (108 million tons), Brazil (87 million tons), Argentina (53 million tons), China (12 million tons), India (10 million tons), Paraguay (10 million tons), Canada (6 million tons), Ukraine (4 million tons), Bolivia (3 million tons) and Uruguay (3 million tons).

Groundnut also known as peanut or monkey nut (Arachis hypogaea L. 2n = 4x = 40, allotetraploid, a species of the legume or bean family, Fabaceae, essentially self-pollinated, with genome 1C=2891 Mbp) is one of the five major oilseeds, namely, soybean, sunflower, groundnut, cottonseed and rapeseed. The global acreage, production and yield during 2018-19 have been 27.49 million hectares, 46.81 million tons and 1700 kg per hectare. The preliminary corresponding figures for 2019-20 have been 26.75 million ha, 45.87 million tons and 1710 kg per ha (USDA, 2000). India and China with more than 4.5 million ha each account for nearly one third of total global acreage and fifty percent of global production (China, 17 million tons and India, 6.69 million tons). Other countries in descending order in terms of area are Sudan, Nigeria, Senegal, Myanmar, Niger, Chad, Guinea, Uganda, Congo and Mozambique. Productivity-wise, USA tops the list (4480 kg/ha) followed by China (3750 kg/ ha). India with 1400 kg/ha is at the average position.

Oilseed Brassicas also referred to as rapeseed-mustard, an important group of oilseed crops in the world, comprise eight cultivated crops of tribe Brassiceae within the family Cruciferae (Brassicaceae). The word ‘rape’ and ‘mustard’ have been derived from the word rapum meaning turnip and European practice of mixing the sweet ‘must’ of old wine with crushed seeds of black mustard [Brassica nigra (L.) Koch] to form a hot paste (Hemingway, 1976).

During 2019, the global acreage of biotech/GM crops was 190.4 million ha and India planted 11.9 million ha GM cotton having insect resistance (Bt-cotton, having two commercialized events, namely, cry1Ac, MON-531, MahycoMonsanto, popularly called by trade name Bollgard-I, single gene event, commercialized in 2002 and cry2Ab2, MON-15985, Mahyco-Monsanto, popularly called by trade name Bollgard-II, double gene event or stacked trait event, commercialized in 2006) stood at the fifth place after USA, Brazil, Argentina and Canada (ISAAA, 2019). Four more events related to Bt cotton (cry1Ac, Event-1, JK Agri-Genetics, commercialized in 2006, fused genes cry1Ab and cry1Ac, GFM Event, Nath Seeds, commercialized in 2006, cry1Ac BNLA-601, UAS, Dharwad and CICR (ICAR), commercialized in 2008 but discontinued and synthetic cry1C, MLS-9124, Metahelix Life Sciences-now Tata Rallis, commercialized in 2009 but not placed in the market) were approved for commercialization but the products could never reach to the market.

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