Description
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In
the frozen midwinter of 1941–1942, the great
metropolis of Leningrad began its epic 900-day
siege by the encircling German army. Throughout
the ruined city, thousands of people were dying
of cold, starvation, and shellfire.
In the world’s oldest seed bank, at the
Institute of Plant Industry, a dedicated team of
breeders and curators sought to guard and
preserve their priceless samples for posterity.
This collection of over 160 000 plant varieties
had been set up in the 1920s by Nikolai Vavilov,
the doyen of twentieth century plant breeding.
Hardly any food reached the biologists as they
maintained their protective vigil.
One by one, they succumbed to starvation,
surrounded by bags of edible seeds and tubers.
The oats curator L. M. Rodina died, as did rice
curator D. S. Ivanov, and peanut curator A. G.
Shtchukin, and seven more of their heroic
colleagues, one of whom even expired at his
desk, working until the end. When the city was
eventually liberated in January 1944, the entire
collection was intact. It has since been used to
supply new edible plant varieties to millions of
people around the world.
This book is dedicated to all the many heroes of
plant breeding, both past and present,
including: Norman Borlaug, Robert Carsky,
Charles Darwin, Thomas Fairchild, Jack Harlan,
Monkombu Swaminathan, Nikolai Vavilov,
those brave workers from Leningrad and from
other more recently threatened seed banks in
Asia and Africa; and, of course, the untold
generations of anonymous farmer-breeders, most
of whom were women.
It is to you that we truly owe our daily
bread. |
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This comprehensive
survey of modern plant breeding traces its history from the
earliest experiments at the dawn of the scientific revolution in
the seventeenth century to the present day and the existence of
high tech agribusiness.
Murphy tells the
story from the perspective of a scientist working in this field,
offering a rationale and evidence-based insight into its
development. Crop improvement is examined from both a scientific
and socio-economic perspective and the ways in which these
factors interact and impact on agricultural development are
discussed, including debates on genetically-modified food.
Murphy highlights
concerns over the future of plant breeding, as well as potential
options to enable us to meet the challenges of feeding the world
in the 21st century. This thoroughly interdisciplinary and
balanced account serves as an essential resource for everyone
involved with plant breeding research, policy and funding, as
well as those wishing to engage with current debates.
Contents
Preface
Part I. The Science of Plant
Breeding
1. Origins of plant breeding
2. Creating new genetic variation
3. Modern high-tech breeding;
Part II. The Societal Context of
Plant Breeding
4. Rise of the public sector: the US pioneers
5. The public sector in the UK
6. Breeding goes global: the Green Revolution and beyond;
Part III. Turmoil and Transition:
The legacy of the 1980s
7. Resurgence of the private sector
8. Emergence of a new crop improvement paradigm
9. Decline of the public sector
10. Reaping the consequences;
Part IV. The Agbiotech Paradigm
11. Agbiotech: genes and dreams
12. The future of transgenic crops I. Improving the
technology
13. The future of transgenic crops II. Improving the
products
Part V. Increasing Global Crop
Production: The New Challenges
14. Feeding the world - fallacies and realities
15. The roles of management, subsidies, and breeding in crop
improvement
Part VI. Plant Breeding in the
Twenty-First Century
16. The future of international plant breeding
17. Rebalancing our approach to crop improvement
18. Where do we go from here?
19. Conclusions and recommendations.
Comprehensive table of contents
(PDF) |
