The Essentials of Plant Breeding in Corn Production According to Rama (2009), plant breeding can be compared to the lottery.

If our math still serves as right, the number of 6-digit combinations in the popular 6-45 lottery is computed at 9.4 million- meaning your chance of winning the jackpot prize is a very slim 1 in a 9.4 million. Similarly, plant breeding is a number game in the sense that numerous corn lines are crossed each season to determine the products that are best suited to specific local corn producing areas. The plant breeding has a very wide contribution to agriculture; it helps us create more plants with desirable characteristics which will improve the harvest of our corn growers. Rama (2005), also states that the chances of developing the right hybrid corn varieties are much higher than the lottery due to calculated selection and characterization of inbred lines, and the extensive number of combinations or crosses being conducted in hundreds of fields each year by hybrid seed producers. Plant breeding has so much to impart us, it will bring us the new era and it will help our countrys economic status.

According to Ashwort(2003), the following procedures of breeding are discussed: First, decide on the varieties that you wish to cross and plant the seeds in your experimental area. Secondly, as soon as the plants develop ear shoots and before the silks emerge, cover the shoots with a loosely fitted bag secured at the bottom with a paper clip or a string. Consequently, keep a close watch o the ears. When the silks are visible the ear is ready for pollination. The appropriate tassel should be then bagged for use the next morning. The bag should be secured tightly at the base of the tassel to keep the pollen from falling out and to keep it from becoming contaminated with other pollen. Finally, in 4

the following morning, shake the bagged tassel vigorously to loosen the pollen. Remove the bag from the tassel bending the tassel downward to prevent pollen from spilling out. These are the steps which we can breed the corn plant it helps us to have a new variety of the corn plant. As affirmed to by Ashwort(2003), another part of the breeding is its different methods these are: Open-pollination, Hybridization, and Genetic Engineering. The first one is the open-pollination or the standard varieties of seeds breed through their type and originate in gene mutation while hybridization are the result of the deliberate crossing of two different parent varieties usually inbred. Another method is the genetic engineering unlike open-pollination and hybridization which occurs in nature, genetic engineering requires human intervention in a laboratory setting directly manipulating DNA. One of these methods can be used to improve the desirable characteristics of a corn plat and might give the corn growers a better harvest than before these methods usually done by the experts but we can also try to do it by our own by simply following the different procedures. Another branch which is to be discussed in this research paper is the different types or techniques of breeding. First are known as wide crosses which is defined as the interspecific and intergeneric hybrids that are produced from a cross at related species or genera that do not normally or sexually produce with each other (e.g. the cereal triticale is a wheat and a rye hybrid) Another type is the mutation breeding which used chemical mutagens and transposons to generate mutants with desirable traits to bred with other cultivars. With classical breeding techniques, the breeder does not know exactly what genes have been introduced to new cultivars while modern plant breeding may use 5

techniques of molecular biology is also known by this. These types of plant breeding will ensure that corn growers will fully understand the ways on how to improve their crops. Another additional knowledge concerning about this issue is the steps of plant breeding; the following are the major activities in plant breeding such as Creation of Variation, Selection, Evaluations, Release, Multiplication, and Distribution of the New Variety.(http://www.en.wikipedia.org/plant breeding.html) Another opinion stated by Ramilo(2009), is that seed production is one of the profitable businesses nowadays for the simple reason that seed is basic to agriculture and hence there would always be a need for it. More and more farmers are getting into it, particularly in Mindanao where a number of farmers are earning more from seeds than from commercial rice. It is very important because on the north Mindanao highlands, a farmer wishes to have a hybrid corn for the improvement of their harvest. As stated by Nieves & Bueno(2010), it is also good that we have regular interaction with corn farmers as we get to understand better what their wants and needs are. It appears that the farmers want a hybrid that is like this: has a good husk cover; has excellent grain quality; easily harvested; and tolerant or resistant to certain diseases like ear rots, stalk rots, and other leaf diseases. In short, they want a hybrid that is high yielding and profitable, practical, and flexible to use, and most of all suitable in their area. According to Nieves & Bueno(2010), one of the product of plant breeding is called P3645R which has the potential yield of 10 mt/ha to 11 mt/ha and has a shelling recovery of 77 to 80 percent. It has a round yellow grain color and medium to large grain size. It is resistant to bacterial stalk rot, gray leaf spot, northern leaf blight, giberella ear rot and southern rust and moderately resistant to fusarium stalk rot. This corn hybrid will 6

help a lot to northern Mindanao farmers especially in highlands and this amazing product are created by the amazing plant breeding.