This chapter focuses on the role of seeds in agriculture and cultivar development, early development of crop domestication, cultivar nomenclature and importance of the subspecies. The role of plant breeders in cultivar development, formulation of breeding policy and its implementation,...

This chapter addresses the likely leaders and laggards from the seed industry's shift to a protected intellectual property model, by analysing the differences that have emerged between developed and developing countries. Developed countries have moved towards biotechnology, private funding and...

This chapter questions the continued need for public plant breeding programmes in developing countries and discusses their future role. The following factors driving the changes taking place in the plant breeding industry are identified: the commercialization of agriculture; the privatization of...