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
