Summary
For decision-making about varietal release, plant breeders use yield-trial data supplemented by intuitive selection indices based on secondary characters. It is suggested that they could be replaced by explicit economic indices. Profitability is taken as the function to be maximised. An example drawn from sugar cane in Barbados, West Indies shows that secondary characters can indeed reasonably be given weights which turn out to be economically substantial. In principle, similar economic indices could be developed for any crop. All such equations are essentially local in application.
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Simmonds, N.W., Walker, D.I.T. An economic selection index for sugar cane breeding. Euphytica 35, 311–317 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00028569
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00028569