Breeding for stress tolerance: Drought as a case study

Abstract

Drought is an important climatic phenomenon which after soil infertility ranks as the second most severe limitation in the production of crops under rainfed, low input agriculture. Breeding of genotypes with greater drought tolerance is the best strategy for maintaining and/or increasing crop production in such systems. This paper reviews the concept of drought tolerance and discusses approaches that may be adapted to breed varieties of crops with tolerance to drought. What remains to be done is for breeders to use the available genetic variability with respect to mechanisms that aid the plant in adapting to drought in their breeding programmes. It is concluded that biotechnologies will prove quick and stable markers for identifying genes that confer drought resistance.


Ghana Jnl agric Sci. Vol.32(2) 1999: 229-236