Strategies, Achievements and Constraints for Breeding Programmes of Agroforestry Tree Species

Breeding strategies are the plans to execute breeding programmes to achieve specific objectives. Strategies vary with mode of pollination (self or open), mode of propagation (sexual or asexual), nature and amount of genetic variation (additive or non-additive) and objectives of breeding in a species. The breeding strategies should be simple to execute, less resource consuming, and should provide greater gains per unit time. Some strategies for open-pollinated species, clonally propagated species and insect pest resistance have been proposed. The strategies are simple to manage and do not involve the large scale control crosses. These are cheap and time saving as test-, production- and breeding-populations have been combined into one. Selection and breeding are done in each breeding zone, and breeding material is exchanged among zones. This will help in broadening the genetic base of breeding populations and enhancing the genetic gains considerably. Genotype x environment interactions, if any, can be exploited for each breeding zone through multilocation test. Achievements made through breeding programmes and the constraints faced in their execution have been discussed.