ABSTRACT
The agriculture sector faces the daunting challenge of providing adequate food and other necessities for a growing world population, which is projected to be nine billion by 2050. There is limited scope for the expansion of arable land, and the emerging threat to agriculture from climate change in the form of unpredictable weather, floods, and other disastrous events makes the task of providing enough food for the global population even more challenging (Clements et al., 2011). Since 1950 agricultural researchers have applied the scientific principles of genetics and breeding in an aggressive effort to improve crops grown primarily in less developed countries. The effort typically was accompanied by collateral investments to develop or strengthen the delivery of extension services, production inputs and markets, and to develop physical infrastructural features such as roads and irrigation (IAASTD, 2009).
