Mass selection advantages, disadvantages and applications are listed below.
Advantages of Mass Selection
Merits of mass selection method of plant breeding are as given below
- Varieties developed by mass selection have wide adaptability, wide genetic base and stable.
- Rapid, simple and least expensive of plant-breeding procedures.
- Retains considerable genetic variability
- Of use for the improvement of land races.
Disadvantages of Mass Selection
Demerits of mass selection are listed below
- Variation exists in variety developed by mass selection. Phenotype of these varieties is not as uniform as pure line varieties.
- To test the homozygosity of plants progeny test is always required, as without progeny testing selected types will show segregation in next generation.
- Less improvement as compared to pure line selection.
- Limited use in improvement of self fertilizing crops.
- Varieties difficult to identify in seed certification program than pure lines.
- Only effective for characters with high heritability.
- Only those varieties which show genetic variation can be improved by this method, as it uses variability present in population.
Applications of Mass Selection
Applications of this type of selection method are given below
- To maintain purity of existing variety simply by rouging of unwanted ones.
- In breeding of crops like forage crops which are less considered from economic point of view.
- To preserve identity of established cultivar.
Procedure for the development of mass selected varieties is given on the page Procedure for Mass Selection.