Plant breeding is the art and science of manipulating the genetics of plants for better performance to benefit the humankind. It is achieved through many different techniques ranging from simply selecting plants with desirable characteristics for propagation, to more complicated tissue culture and molecular techniques. Plant breeding has been practiced for thousands of years since the beginning of human civilization. It is now practiced worldwide by individuals such as gardeners and farmers, or by professional plant breeders attached to government institutions, universities, crop-specific industry associations or research centers. Today even a nurseryman needs to understand plant breeding and selection; and to this end, learning about plant breeding techniques is very valuable for anyone working in the modern plant industry. Plant breeding is a bigger industry than most people realize. In some places, earnings from plant breeding rights can equal or exceed earnings from actually producing plants.
In Sri Lanka, government research institutes related to crop breeding as well as certain private sector companies have established conventional and modern plant breeding facilities and production in commercial scale are currently in operation for the mass production of hybrid and inbred crop varieties such as rice, maize, brinjal, okra, tomato, capsicum, eggplant, bitter gourd, papaya, banana etc., as well as certain ornamental plants such as anthurium, orchid, chrysanthemum, gerbera, roses etc. However, there are limited programs available to disseminate the knowledge and skills on Plant Breeding techniques to practitioners in Sri Lanka. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop such programs to cater to a group of people who are interested in learning plant breeding techniques to be applied in research institutes, private industries or as horticulturists, gardeners and farmers.
