Plant breeding has evolved over centuries from early attempts by ancient civilizations to artificial pollination of date palms, to the development of modern scientific plant breeding in the 18th-19th centuries. Key events included Thomas Fairchild producing the first artificial hybrid in 1717, Gregor Mendel's discoveries of genetics in the 1860s, and the work of early 20th century scientists who applied Mendel's principles to plant improvement. Modern plant breeding accelerated in the 1940-60s, including Norman Borlaug's development of semi-dwarf high-yielding wheat varieties, launching the Green Revolution. Institutional support also grew over this time, such as the establishment of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in 1929.
2. Different definitions of plant
breeding
 1. Vavilov (1935) – plant breeding is the evolution directed
by the will of man
 2. Stebbins (1957) – plant breeding is merely a continuation
of the natural evolution of crop plant species, changing its
course in the direction of greater use to mankind.
 3. Riley – plant breeding is a technology of the production of
varieties of crop plants adapted to man’s needs.
 4. Frankel – plant breeding is the adjustment of plants to the
service of mankind.
ï‚› 5. Poehlman & sleeper- plant breeding is the art and science
of improving the heredity of plants for the benefit of human.
3. ï‚› Babylonians and Assyrians pollinated date palm artificially
as early as 700 B.C.
ï‚› Assyria and babylonia is what we call as the modern day
Iraq.
ï‚› Iraq being the desert area so the palm cultivation was more
hence the people first began artificial pollination in date
palms those days.
ï‚› Thomas Fairchild (1717) produced the first artificial hybrid.
ï‚› Thomas Fairchild was the first English nurseryman to
experiment with hybridization of plants. Before 1717 he
placed the pollen of sweet william on the style of carnations.
ï‚› Johnson (1829) states that he was one of the few gardeners
"uniting a love of science with the practice of his art.“
ï‚› He was the author of The City Gardener (1722) which was
the first book on town gardening.
4. ï‚› Knight was the first man to use artificial
hybridization to develop several new fruit
varieties.
ï‚› Le Couteur and Shireff used individual
plant selection and progeny test to develop
some useful cereal varieties.
ï‚›
ï‚› FATHER OF GENETICS - GREGOR
JOHAN MENDEL
 FATHER OF MODERN GENETICS –
THOMAS HUNT MORGAN
5. Joseph kolreuter
 Josef Gottlieb Kölreuter, German botanist who was a
pioneer in the study of plant hybrids..
ï‚› Cultivating plants with the purpose of studying their
fertilization and development, he performed experiments,
particularly with the tobacco plant (Nicotiana), that
included artificial fertilization and the production of
fertile hybrids between plants of different species.
ï‚› The experimental results he obtained foreshadowed the
work of the Austrian biologist Gregor Johann Mendel.
7. CHRONOLOGY OF PLANT BREEDING
ï‚› 1890- Rimpu in sweden made ist intergeneric
cross between bread wheat and Rye.
ï‚› 1900- Devries , Correns , and Tschermark
independently rediscovered Mendel’s laws of
inheritance.
ï‚› 1903- johanssen coined the terms :
1. genotype
2. phenotype
3. pureline
8. ï‚› 1908- Shull and East independently proposed over
dominance heterosis in maize.
ï‚› 1908- Davenport first proposed dominance
hypothesis of heterosis
ï‚› 1910- Bruce, Keeble and pellew elaborated
dominance hypothesis proposed by Davenport.
ï‚› 1914- shull first used the term heterosis for hybrid
vigour.
ï‚› 1917- Jones proposed dominance of linked gene
hypothesis
ï‚› 1921- Sewall and Wright described systems of
mating.
ï‚› 1926- East and Mangelsdorf ist discovered
gametophytic system of self incompatibility in
Nicotiana sanderae
9. ï‚› 1927- Karpencheko developed first
intergeneric hybrid between Raish and
cabbage in Russia
ï‚› 1928- Stadler first used X-rays for induction of
mutations in crop plants.
ï‚› 1935- Nagahern proposed the origin of
tetraploid species of Brassica using a triangle.
ï‚› 1937-Harrington proposed mass pedigree
method of breeding.
ï‚› 1939- Gouldon first suggested the use of single
seed descent in autogamous species.
ï‚› 1940-Jenkins described the procedure of
recurrent selection.
10. ï‚› 1945- Hull coined the term recurrent
selection and over dominance working
with Maize.
ï‚› 1952- Jensen first suggested the use of
multilines in oats .
ï‚› 1953- Borlaug first outlined the method of
developing multilines in Wheat.
ï‚› 1964- Borlaug developed high yielding
semidwarf varieties of wheat which
resulted in green revolution.
ï‚› 1965- Graphius first applied single seed
descent method in Oats.
ï‚› 1970- C.T. patel first developed cotton
hybrid for commercial cultivation in India.
11. ï‚› 1983- Development of first transgenic
plant in Tobacco in USA
ï‚› 1987- development of first transgenic
plant by monsanto company in USA
 1991- Release of world’s first pigeon pea
hybrid (ICPRS) by ICRISAT for commercial
cultivation in India. (GMS based)
ï‚› 1997- identification of terminator gene
which allows germination of seed only for
one germination by Monsanto.
12. INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
ï‚› 1871- Department of Agriculture was created by GOI .
ï‚› 1892-first scientist appointed in the Dpartment , he was
agricultural chemist.
ï‚› 1905- IARI- Imperial agricultural Research Institute. Pusa (
Bihar).
ï‚› 1929- Imperial Council of Agricultural Research was
established.
ï‚› 1906- Agricultural college was started in coimbatore.
Actually it was shifted from Saidapet in chennai.
ï‚› 1946-Present name of ICAR was christened.
ï‚› 1960- First agricultural university was started at Pantnagar.
ï‚› 1971- one of the pioneer centre for research in india TNAU
was established.