As the world's population increases the need to produce greater quantities of major staple crops such as wheat, rice, maize, potato, cassava, soybean, sweet potato, barley, and banana in order to sufficiently feed the people of the world continues to grow. Breeding Major Food Staples covers improving yields and quality of these crops through breeding and the use of molecular biology tools such as gene transfer, genome mapping, biofortification, and bioinformatics. This book will be an important reference for anyone working in crop breeding.

Foreword (Gurdev S. Khush).Preface (Manjit S. Kang and P.M. Priyadarshan).Part 1: General Topics.Chapter 1: Crop Breeding Methodologies: Classic and Modern(Manjit S.Kang, Prasanta K. Subudhi, Niranjan Baisakh, and P.M.Priyadarshan).Chapter 2: Genetic Enhancement of Polypoid Crops Using Tools ofClassical Cytogenetics and Modern Biotechnology (Prem P.Jauhar).Chapter 3: Biofortification: Breeding Micronutrient-Dense Crops(Wolfgang H. Pfeiffer and Bonnie McClafferty).Chapter 4:Bioinformatics and Plant Genomics for Staple CropsImprovement (David Edwards).Part 2: Cereals and Oil/Protein Crops.Chapter 5: Breeding Spring Bread Wheat for Irrigated and RainfedProduction Systems of the Developing World (Ravi P. Singh andRichard Trethowan).Chapter 6: Rice Breeding for Sustainable Production (Sant S.Virmani and M. Ilyas-Ahmed).Chapter 7: Barley Breeding for Sustainable Production (SalvatoreCeccarelli, Stefania Grando, Flavio Capettini, and MichaelBaum).Chapter 8: Corn Breeding in the Twenty-first Century (G. RichardJohnson).Chapter 9: Soybean Breeding Achievements and Challenges (SilviaR. Cianzio).Part 3: Carbohydrate Suppliers: Rood Crops andBanana.Chapter 10: Breeding Potato as a Major Staple Crop (John E.Bradshaw).Chapter 11: Breeding of Sweetpotato (S.L. Tan, M. Nakatani, andK. Komaki).Chapter 12: Cassava Genetic Improvement (Hernan Ceballos, MartinFregene, Juan Carlos Perez, Nelson Morante, and FernandoCalle).Chapter 13: Banana Breeding (Michael Pillay and LeenaTripathi).Index