ABSTRACT
The extraordinary productivity of modern agriculture cannot be maintained without constant genetic support from wild relatives of agricultural crops–sometimes supplemented with the primitive cultivars of not-yet-modern farmers. Modern agriculture benefits from huge amounts of artificial additives such as fertilizers and pesticides. The reader who wonders how genetic breeding can contribute so much to modern agriculture may consider an illustrative example from the animal kingdom. The problem of genetic erosion lies in part with the sheer attrition of natural environments through increase in human numbers and in human aspirations. The potential of rice, corn, and wheat is reduced by about 9 percent as a result of diseases. Specialist strains of modern crops not only increase general productivity and add to nutritional content, but resist dozens of diseases that afflict agricultural plants. Rice geneticists also must pay special attention to the depredations of diseases, which are a constant challenge for rice growers.
