Breeding of Vegetable, Spice and Tuber crops (2+1)

Advantages and disadvantages of Mass Selection

Advantages of Mass Selection

• Merits of mass selection method of plant breeding are as given below
• Varieties developed by mass selection have wide adaptability, wide genetic base and stable.
• Rapid, simple and least expensive of plant-breeding procedures.
• Retains considerable genetic variability
• Of use for the improvement of land races.
 

Disadvantages of Mass Selection

• Demerits of mass selection are listed below
• Variation exists in variety developed by mass selection. Phenotype of these varieties is not as uniform as pureline varieties.
• To test the homozygosity of plants, progeny test is always required, as without progeny testing selected types will show segregation in next generation.
• Less improvement as compared to pure line selection.
• Limited use in improvement of self fertilizing crops.
• Varieties are difficult to identify in seed certification programmes compared to pure lines.
• Only effective for characters with high heritability.
• Only those varieties which show genetic variation can be improved by this method, as it uses variability present in population.