Question

Describe various steps of Artificial pollination.

Answer 1

Artificial pollination

1. Artificial pollination is a technique widely used to improve the quality of crops.
2. In artificial pollination, two varieties of plants, each having one or more desirable qualities, are pollinated artificially to give rise to a variety that acquires the desirable qualities of both the parents.
3. Artificial pollination involves the following steps:

• Selection: First the male and female plants of the same species but with different desirable characters are selected.
• Removal of stamen: Stamens are removed manually from the bisexual flowers before they mature, to prevent natural pollination from the same plant or flower.
• Bagging: The flowers are covered with paper or polythene bags. This is done to prevent natural pollination from plants which are not selected.
• Pollination: Pollen grains from desirable plants are collected and dusted on the stigma of the selected flower.

4. The seeds thus produced are collected and plants are raised.

5. This process of obtaining a new variety of plants through artificial pollination is called hybridisation and the plants thus raised are called hybrids. 6. The technique is widely applied for the improvement of crops such as maize, rice, bajra, sugar beet and cucumber.