Rapid Generation Advancement for Accelerated Plant Improvement

In 2020, more than 800 million people suffered from hunger, and this number will continue to rise as the world’s population increases, in addition to heightening the consequences of climate change and the probability of increasing the risk of wars. We cannot continue to use the conventional breeding techniques employed 50 years ago, which require 7–10 years to develop a high-yielding and stable variety. Several technologies, including shuttle breeding, off-season planting, tissue culture (embryo rescue), doubled haploid (DH), marker-assisted selection (MAS), high-throughput genotyping, genomic selection (GS), plant transformation, speed breeding, and genome editing, have been developed for rapid generation advancement (RGA). Utilizing these technologies can expedite the development of climate-resilient plant varieties with enhanced yield and resilience to biotic and abiotic challenges. This chapter goes deep into these technologies and approaches that have emerged in the last 10 years and could be used to accelerate crop improvement.