Breeding and Seed Production of Ornamental Crops

Course Overview

Floriculture is a field of horticulture in which the demand for the novelty in flower colour, form, shape, texture etc. is unending. Although, the variability present in nature has been exploited well and the plants with ornamental values are being grown commercially away from their native places, yet this approach is not sufficient to meet out the present scenario of world floriculture trade. Therefore, it becomes necessary to exploit various crop improvement techniques to attain desirable floricultural traits. Different techniques of plant breeding viz. introduction, selection, mutation breeding, hybridization etc. are being extensively utilized for the development of new commercial varieties in floricultural crops. Therefore, the course aims to expose the students to basic techniques of breeding used in crop improvement and their utilization for the development of new varieties. These techniques have been explained in an elaborative manner in the course along with suitable examples and illustrations. The course also contains the breeding procedures adopted in important commercial flower crops for the development of new varieties. Efforts have also been made to provide the knowledge about the significant improvement done in the varietal development throughout the world in general and India in particular. The course will also help to expose the students to the techniques of handling of flower crops in a practical manner.