How can crop varieties be made disease resistant to overcome food crisis in India? Explain.

Name one disease resistant variety in India of:

(a) Wheat to leaf and stripe rust

(b) Brassica to white rust

A wide range of fungal, bacterial and viral pathogens affect the yield of cultivated crops. Disease resistance can be provided by conventional breeding, mutational breeding or genetic engineering.

(i) Conventional breeding: It includes the basic steps of screening, germplasm, hybridisation, selection, testing and release.

(ii) Mutational breeding: In this method, genetic variations are created, which then result in the creation of traits not found in the parental type.

 Genetic engineering:

(1) Certain wild varieties have disease-resistant characteristics, but they are low yielding.

(2) Disease-resistant genes from such varieties are introduced in high-yielding varieties through recombinant DNA technology.

One disease resistant variety in India of:

(a) Wheat to leaf and stripe rust: Himgiri

(b) Brassica to white rust: Pusa swarnim