You are a Botanist working in the area of plant breeding. Describe the various steps that you will undertake to release a new variety.

The various steps undertaken while releasing a new variety are as follows:

1. Collection of variability: It is a root of the plant breeding programme. The collection of all the available variety of genes and characters is done among all the wild variety present of the specific plant.

2. Evaluation and selection of parents: The above step ensures the collection of germplasm. After the collection another main task is to select the parents that have desirable traits and characters.

3. Cross hybridisation among the selected parents: It is an important time consuming task. The two parents with desirable traits are crossed such that both the desirable trait now occurs in one plant.

For example: a plant with disease resistant trait is crossed with high yielding plant, now the offspring has both the traits.

4. Selection and testing of superior recombinants: A very keen observation is done among the hybrids so as to select the superior hybrids that have the desirable characters of both the parents.

5. Testing, release and commercialisation of the new cultivars: After the selection of superior hybrids, they are grown in research fields so as to evaluate and test the quality and quantity of the product. Only that hybrid whose product is qualitatively and quantitatively good is released to grow economically.