Speed Breeding for Rapid Crop Improvement

Crop improvement through conventional breeding methods is a time taking process. The seed-to-seed cycle requires a lot of time, which becomes one of the biggest bottlenecks in crop improvement programs. Plant breeders are unable to keep up with the rapid climatic changes, ultimately threatening the global food security. However, speed breeding (SB) has the potential to significantly accelerate the pace of crop improvement programs by modifying several environmental concepts such as light spectrum, photoperiod, temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) levels, and nutrient availability. Speed breeding is of various types, but the most utilized ones are Speed Breeding I (SB-I), Speed Breeding II (SB-II), and Speed Breeding III (SB-III), depending on the modifications, availability of resources, and the purpose of the crop improvement program. The flexibility and adaptability of speed breeding encourage plant breeders to utilize it for their crop improvement programs. By integrating modern technologies like Marker-assisted selection (MAS), Double haploid (DH) technique, and Artificial intelligence (AI), the efficiency and precision of speed breeding programs can be further improved. Significant progress has been made with speed breeding, achieving several generations per year in different crops. Nevertheless, the speed breeding technique presents some challenges and demands for proper infrastructure, supplementary and effective facilities for plant phenomics, expertise, and constant financial resources for development and research. Despite these challenges, speed breeding remains a fruitful method for accelerating and enhancing crop breeding programs.