Читать книгу Principles of Plant Genetics and Breeding - George Acquaah - Страница 23

The phenomenon of global climatic change that has been occurring over the years is partly responsible for modifying the crop production environment (e.g. some regions of the world are getting drier and others saltier). This means that new cultivars of crops need to be bred for new production environments. Whereas developed economies may be able to counter the effects of unseasonable weather by supplementing the production environment (e.g. by irrigating crops), poor countries are easily devastated by even brief episodes of adverse weather conditions. For example, development and use of drought‐resistant cultivars is beneficial to crop production in areas of marginal or erratic rainfall regimes. Breeders also need to develop new plant types that can resist various biotic (diseases and insect pests) and other abiotic (e.g. salt, drought, heat, cold) stresses in the production environment. Crop distribution can be expanded by adapting crops to new production environments (e.g. adapting tropical plants to temperate regions). Development of photoperiod insensitive crop cultivars would allow the expansion in production of previously photoperiod sensitive species.