Description
Book SynopsisImprovements in adaptation and maturity leading to greater yield are the most important criteria for the acceptance of a new crop cultivar, since it is the yield which dictates the economic value of the crop. Therefore, yield improvement is one goal of virtually every crop breeding program. Many such programs have tended to concentrate on identifying the genetic traits responsible for higher yield and selecting each of them in the later stages of the breeding cycle. However, selection for yield per se is still the most effective method, since it is a combination of traits, operating within the limits of the system, which finally determines yield. This book presents a whole-system, or holistic viewpoint for the improvement of adaptation, maturity and yield. Central to its thesis is recognition that system-established changes in levels of the components of the plant system, within a constant capacity, i.e. within the limitations of the system, determines yield and other cultivar characte
Table of Contents1: Shifts from Current Paradigms Suggested by Near-whole and Whole-system Research 2: The Beginning of Systems Thinking about Breeding for Yield 3: Biomass Accumulation: The First Major Physiological Genetic Component of Yield 4: Partitioning of Photosynthate: The Second Major Physiological Genetic Component of Yield 5: Days to Maturity: The Third Major Physiological Genetic Component of Yield 6: A Model of Photoperiod x Temperature Interaction Effects on Plant Development 7: Prediction of Phenology by the Genotype x Photoperiod x Temperature Interaction Model 8: Interactive Control over Plant Development by Vernalization, Photoperiodism and Temperature 9: Yield System Analysis: An Adjunct to Yield Trials 10: Interplant Competition and Breeding for Higher Yield 11: System-established Interconnections among Plant Traits and Implications for Plant Breeding Strategies 12: Maximising Efficiency of Breeding for Higher Crop Yield 13: Systems Thinking Requires Multidisciplinary Expertise and Collaboration
