Question

Which among the following is not the objective of plant breeding

• A. Breeding for higher yield
• B. Breeding for disease resistance
• C. Breeding for improved plant food quality
• D. Breeding for higher meat and milk

Hint:

Plant breeding focuses exclusively on crop plants: yield, disease/pest resistance, drought tolerance, and grain/oil/fiber quality.
Milk, meat, and egg production goals belong exclusively to Animal Genetics and Breeding.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Concept:
Plant breeding is the purposeful manipulation of plant species to create desired genotypes and phenotypes for specific agricultural, economic, and industrial uses.
Its primary aim is to enhance the genetic potential of crop plants to meet growing food, fiber, and nutritional demands under changing climatic conditions.
Differentiating between crop improvement goals and animal husbandry objectives is essential when identifying breeding targets.

Step 1: Identifying Valid Plant Breeding Objectives:
- Higher yield: Maximizing economic biomass production (grain, fruit, fiber, or tuber yield per unit area) is a primary objective.
- Disease and pest resistance: Incorporating resistance genes against fungal, bacterial, viral, and insect attacks to reduce crop loss and minimize pesticide dependency.
- Improved food quality: Enhancing protein content, oil quality, vitamin concentration, baking/milling quality, and shelf life of plant produce (biofortification).
- Abiotic stress tolerance: Developing resistance against drought, salinity, heat, cold, and lodging.

Step 2: Evaluating the Non-Plant Breeding Objective:
Breeding for higher meat and milk production is an exclusive goal of livestock breeding and animal husbandry (e.g., dairy cattle, sheep, and goat improvement programs).
Plants do not produce milk or meat; hence, this cannot be an objective of plant breeding.

Step 3: Final Answer:
Thus, "Breeding for higher meat and milk" is not an objective of plant breeding, making option (D) the correct answer.