Plant improvement has shifted its focus from yield, quality and disease resistance to factors that will enhance commerical export, such as early maturity, shelf life and better processing quality. Conventional plant breeding methods aiming at the improvement of a self-pollinating crop, such as wheat, usually take 10-12 years to develop and release of the new variety. During the past 10 years, significant advances have been made and accelerated methods have been developed for precision breeding and early release of crop varieties. 

This work summarizes concepts dealing with germplasm enhancement and development of improved varieties based on innovative methodologies that include doubled haploidy, marker assisted selection, marker assisted background selection, genetic mapping, genomic selection, high-throughput genotyping, high-throughput phenotyping, mutation breeding, reverse breeding, transgenic breeding, shuttle breeding, speed breeding, low cost high-throughput field phenotyping, etc.  It is an important reference with special focus on accelerated development of improved crop varieties.

Foreword

Preface
Accelerated Breeding of Plants: Methods and Applications
Speed Breeding: Methods and Applications
Genomic Selection in Cereal Crops: Methods and Applications
Data Driven Decisions for Accelerated Plant Breeding
Advanced Quantitative Genetics Technologies for Accelerating Plant Breeding
Haploid Production Technology: Fasten Wheat Breeding to Meet Future Food Security
Recent Advances in Chromosome Elimination Mediated Doubled Haploidy Breeding: Focus on Speed Breeding in Bread and Durum Wheats
Acceleration of the Breeding Program for Winter Wheat
Genomics, Biotechnology and Plant Breeding Towards Improving Rice Production
High Frequency Androgenic Green Plant Regeneration in Indica Rice for Accelerated Breeding
Doubled Haploid Technology for Rapid and Efficient Maize Breeding
Bio-fortification of Maize using Accelerated Breeding Tools
Efficient Barley Breeding
Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana L. Gaertn.) Genetics and Breeding for Rapid Genetic Gains
Breeding Advancements in Barnyard Millet
Sorghum Improvement Through Efficient Breeding Technologies
Index.