Study the table given below and identify a, b, c, d, e and f.

Crops	Variety	Resistance to disease
a	Pusa sadabahar	b
c	d	White rust
e	Himgiri	f

or

What is plant breeding ? Explain the two steps involved in classical plant breeding.

The correct answer is:

a - Chilli
b - Leaf curl / Chilli mosaic virus
c - Brassica
d - Pusa Swarnim (Karan rai)
e - Wheat
f - Leaf and stripe rust, hill bunt

or

Plant breeding is the purposeful manipulation of plant species in order to create desired plant types that are better suited for cultivation, give better yields, and are disease resistant.
The two main steps involved in classical plant breeding are:
1. Crossing or hybridization of pure lines to combine desired traits.
2. Artificial selection of plants with desirable traits (such as higher yield, better nutrition, or resistance to diseases) from the progeny.

Step-by-step Explanation:

Part 1: Completing the Table

The table represents various crop varieties developed in India through plant breeding for disease resistance. Let us identify the missing entries step-by-step:

1. Row 1 (a and b): The variety is Pusa Sadabahar. This is a disease-resistant variety of Chilli (represented by a). It is resistant to Chilli mosaic virus, Tobacco mosaic virus, and Leaf curl diseases (represented by b).

2. Row 2 (c and d): The resistance is specified against White rust. The crop that shows resistance to white rust is Brassica (mustard, represented by c), and the specific variety developed is Pusa Swarnim (Karan rai) (represented by d).

3. Row 3 (e and f): The variety is Himgiri. This is a well-known disease-resistant variety of Wheat (represented by e). It is developed to resist diseases like Leaf and stripe rust, and hill bunt (represented by f).

Part 2: Plant Breeding and Classical Steps

Plant Breeding: It is a systematic, purposeful manipulation of plant species by humans to produce plant varieties that are more useful (e.g., higher yielding, having better nutritional quality, or showing resistance to environmental stressors and pests).

Classical Plant Breeding Steps:
- Hybridization: This is the initial step where parents with distinct desired traits are selected and crossed (hybridized) to bring those traits together in a single offspring.
- Selection: The offspring resulting from the cross are evaluated, and only those individuals showing the best combination of desirable traits are selected and propagated further.