A Century of Rice Breeding, Its Impact and Challenges Ahead

Rice, mankind’s most important food crop has been improved since its domestication about 8000 years ago. Constant human selection for improved traits has modified domesticated rice varieties from their wild progenitors so much so that domesticated rices can no longer survive in the wild state. The simple acts of reaping and sowing, for example, are selective. Primitive humans may not have known it, but they started the first rice breeding programs when they began to grow rice plants for their own use. Most farmers have a keen eye and sensitive feeling for plants. Millions of rice farmers have applied this keen insight and sensitivity for thousands of years to select better varieties.