Long recognized as the standard work in its field, this fourth edition of Breeding Field Crops deals with the worldwide advances in plant breeding science and practice in recent years. The authors explain how the expanded knowledge of genetics has contributed to the precision with which new crop cultivars can be developed. They also look at how exciting developments in molecular biology are bringing powerful new tools to supplement those already in the hands of plant breeders.

The general objectives of Breeding Field Crops are: to review essential features in plant reproduction, Mendelian genetic principles, and related genetic phenomena that contribute to plant breeding practices; to describe and explain basic plant breeding methods and techniques; to emphasize the importance of selecting the breeding objectives whose improvement will contribute the greatest economic benefit to the farmer growing the new cultivars; and to describe procedures for the increase, maintenance, and distribution of seeds or vegetative propagules of new crop cultivars.