Genetics and Plant Breeding
Where a variety comes from — selection, crossing, evaluation and the seed that carries it to a farm.
A variety is a decision about which years it has to survive.
The discipline studies inheritance in crop plants and uses it: identifying useful variation, crossing parents that carry it, and selecting through generations for what the Terai actually demands — tolerance of standing water in a bad monsoon, of heat at grain filling, of the late rain that lodges a tall variety, and resistance to the pests and diseases already present in the district.
Teaching runs from the principles of genetics through breeding methods, varietal trials and statistical evaluation, to seed production and certification — because a variety that exists only in a breeder's plot has not reached anybody.
Varietal development
Selection and crossing for yield, duration and stress tolerance.
Resistance breeding
Breeding against the pests and diseases the district already has.
Varietal evaluation
Multi-location, multi-season trials and the statistics behind them.
Seed production
Breeder and foundation seed, quality standards and certification.