Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Online Master: Plant Breeding | Wageningen University & Research

Plant breeding is a human interference with improving crops for human needs and that is

for food, but also for feed and ornamental use.

By doing plant breeding, you can make plants which fit a lot of needs.

You can, let's say, sculp almost plants to the needs of humans, depending on whatever

the needs are.

If they need more yield, then you can try to get plants that have a better yield.

If you have to grow the plants on their, let's say drought conditions, you can make plants which are

more adapted to drought.

We are here in a greenhouse with tomatoes.

We are in the process of combining nice traits, nice characteristics into one plant.

Some tomatoes plants, they are high yielding.

Others have other variable characteristics, because throughout the world tomatoes

grow in different regions and under different circumstances.

And for these different circumstances, in fact you need different varieties.

The online programme in plant breeding looks at genetics, plant physiology, genomics, statistics.

Students learn new knowledge and skills to develop new breeding strategies and new crops.The

study load of the programme is about 20 hours per week.

So that means that as a student you have the flexibility to combine these 20 hours of study

with the obligations from your work.

Everybody that participates in the programme has some connection with plant breeding already.

As a student you will benefit from the experiences from your fellow students.

You will be doing group assignments, having discussions, and you will also be able to

help each other.

If you enrol for this course, then you will also visit Wageningen and the greenhouses.

So you will also meet these tomatoes.