How Farmers Get Benefited

Hybrid Crops involve seed production by crossing different varieties of the same species. They are then grown in controlled environments or greenhouses to increase their likelihood of producing a particular desired trait or trait combination. Like any genetically modified organism, hybrid seed production steps can have strange impacts on the environment. 

Four seed stages are involved in the hybrid crop production in India.

1. Breeder seed: This seed is obtained from the emission of the core seed.
2. Foundation seed: This seed is obtained from the core. 
3. Registered seed:  This is extracted from the nucleus, reproducers, or raw seeds.
4. Certified seed: It is a progeny of registered or foundation seed.

What Are Hybrid Crops?

• A hybrid crop could result from two different types of plants cross-pollinated to make an associate in nursing offspring or a hybrid that contains the simplest traits of each of the parents. 
• In hybridisation, pollination is rigorously controlled to ensure that the correct plants are crossed to gain the specific characteristics, equivalent to larger or higher resistance. 
• Developing a hybrid is time consuming and may require several years. 
• In general, hybrids provide some combination of these favourable traits: dependability, less critical care, and better disease resistance. Mixed vegetables typically look like the veggies at a supermarket.
• As a result, hybrids are a cross between varieties; the seed made by hybrids will not grow a faithful seed. Seeds maturing from a hybrid might exhibit traits of one or each parent plant or a completely different trait. Alternatively, the seed may be sterile and will not grow. 
• Most hybrid plants are artificial crosses; however, the crossing is feasible. Insects or the wind often cross-pollinate two plants near one another of various species; the ensuing seed merely falls on the soil and grows into a hybrid. Few flowers and vegetables we tend to grow these days are in their original wild form.

Hybrid Seed Production Steps

 Step 1: Development of a seed parent alternative (A-Line)

• The seed parent or feminine parent of a hybrid should be a male sterile line. In the absence of a suitable male sterile line, the fertile line or a self-incompatible line will be employed whenever required.
• When the number of seeds produced per impregnation is limited for cereal crops, the cytoplasmic-genetic male sterile line should be employed as the seed parent.

 Step 2: Renovator or father development and alternative (R-Line)

• The male parent or renovator lines, generally inbred lines like A-lines, are required for hybrid creation.
• Wherever forced selfing is applied, their development is completed by the pure line choosing technique.

Step 3: Parental seed maintenance and multiplication

•  As with cross-pollinated crops, the hybrid programme is determined by three lines: A-line (ms), B-line (Maintainer), and R-line (Restorer); the stock producer maintains all homogeneous inbreds.
• A-lines and B-lines are cultivated under perfect agronomic circumstances in 4:2 rows for proper maintenance.
• Apart from its primary usage, the R-line is automatically maintained within the hybrid production block; hence, there is no need to maintain it one by one. The cross-pollinated crop’s natural open pollination is beneficial for its maintenance.

Step 4: F1 hybrid production and improvement

• A-lines and R-lines are grown in a 4:2 magnitude relationship in the hybrid production block.
• The layout is the same, except that B-lines are replaced by R-lines.
•  At maturity, the seeds of A-rows are gathered separately and carefully as these hybrids, and the R-line seeds are harvested concurrently for future use.

The different types of hybrid crops in India

• India has several hybrid crop types. These plants are derived from vegetative cuttings (e.g. apples) or hybrid seeds (e.g. maize). 
• The vegetatively propagated hybrids include various vegetable and fruit plants, that is, vegetative clones of a hybrid plant, with fascinating traits from a sexual cross of two parental plants (e.g. strawberries, apples, holly, and cassava). Moreover, propagation can also be performed using cuttings or bulbs.
• Few vegetable and field crop plants are obtained from F1 hybrid seed. They hold significant value due to increased seed yield (e.g. corn).

Conclusion

Hybrid crops in India are created with seed production by crossing different varieties of the same species. They are grown in controlled environments or greenhouses under specific conditions. Hybrids provide a combination of dependability, early maturity, higher yield, improved flavour, specific plant size and disease resistance. The hybrid program is predicted on three lines in cross-pollinated crops: A-line (ms), B-line, and R-line. The stock raiser maintains all homozygous inbreds. A-lines and B-lines are cultivated in a 4:2 magnitude relation in the hybrid production block.