Access

news feature

Nature 421, 568-570 (6 February 2003) | doi:10.1038/421568a

Crop improvement: A dying breed

Jonathan Knight1

Top

Public-sector research into classical crop breeding is withering, supplanted by 'sexier' high-tech methods. But without breeders' expertise, molecular-genetic approaches might never bear fruit. Jonathan Knight reports.

Normally, at this time of year, agricultural scientists from around the world would be converging on the headquarters of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, known as CIMMYT, in Texcoco, near Mexico City. They would then travel together to a desert field station near Ciudad Obregón in northwestern Mexico to study the current crop of experimental wheat cultivars, planted at the beginning of winter.