Genetic Diversity In Agriculture

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reduced the natural variability inherent in
primitive plant forms and related species of crop plants. Agricultural process,
as a result of new breeding programs, has reduced rather than increased crop
variability as improved cultivars, or varieties, are planted in wider and wider
areas and old cultivars, which may contain valuable genes, are lost. Crop
failures, which result in a smaller gene pool, have led to an increased
awareness of the need to preserve genetic diversity in plants. Efforts are
under way to increase collections of plant materials in various forms. Usually
these are preserved as seeds, but living plants, pollen, and cell cultures are
also used. In most gene banks, seeds are usually preserved under conditions of
low temperature and humidity. These collections must be periodically renewed by
growing the plants and producing new seeds. Increasing emphasis is also being
placed on preserving living collections of asexually propagated crops such as
species of ...

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