Question

Name any five hybrid varieties of crop plants which have been developed in India.

Answer 1

Hint: Green Revolution was introduced in India in 1965 by Indian geneticist M.S. Swaminathan who is also known as the father of the green revolution in India. Introduction of high yielding seeds led to a rise in crop production. The high yielding semi-dwarf varieties of wheat and rice increased the production of these crops.

Complete answer:
Though the Indian economy is largely based on agriculture, lack of modern technology and monsoon dependent crop production were some of the major constraints to obtain a good harvest.
Plant breeding has been used to develop the new and improved varieties of crop plants that obtain better yield and are resistant to biotic and abiotic stress conditions. Some of the examples of the hybrid crop varieties developed in India are as following:
Wheat: The high yielding and disease-resistant wheat varieties Sonalika and Kalyan Sona were developed in India and introduced in the wheat-growing states of the country in 1963.
Rice: Jaya and Ratna are the semi-dwarf and short duration rice varieties developed at IARI, India. These high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice led to the green revolution in India.
Brassica: Pusa swarnim is the white rust-resistant variety of Brassica.
Cauliflower: Pusa Shubhra and Pusa Snowball K-1 are the disease-resistant varieties of cauliflower and exhibit resistance against Black rot and Curl blight black rot respectively.
Cowpea: Pusa Komal is resistant to bacterial blight and was developed in India.

Note:
 Conventional breeding technique includes the screening of the germplasm of wild varieties for desired genes, selection and hybridization of the selected plants to obtain the hybrid progeny. The hybrids are then evaluated and tested for the desired features such as yield, disease resistance to be released as the new varieties.