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High-yielding varieties (abbreviated asHYVs) of agriculturalcrops arevarieties of crops that are usually characterized by a combination of the followingtraits in contrast to the conventional ones:
The most popular HYVs can be found amongwheat,corn,soybean,rice,potato, andcotton. They are heavily used in commercial andplantation farms.
TheGreen Revolution in the late 1960s (or generally, in the second half of the 20th century)[1] introduced farmers to cultivation of food crops using HYV seeds, although their ancestral roots may be older.[2]
Compared to the traditional seeds, HYV seeds promise to produce much greater amounts of grain on a single plant. As a result, the same piece of land now produces much larger quantities of foodgrains than was possible earlier. However, HYVs need plenty of water, chemicalfertilizers andpesticides to produce the best results.[3]
HYV seeds were developed by scientists to improve food supplies and reducefamine indeveloping countries.[4]
HYVs are developed in the field ofbiotechnology, bygenetic crossbreeding of plants.[3]
High yielding variety seeds are known for their resistance to insects and diseases and ability to produce high yields. These seeds are superior in quality and promote abundant and healthy crop production. The high-yielding seeds exhibit resilience againstfloods anddroughts, resulting in better-quality yields.[5] They also mature earlier than the traditional seeds.[6]
HYV crops need a lot of inputs (such as fertilizers and pesticides) to grow, and this increases costs as well asenvironmental pollution.[4]
HYV seeds are very expensive. The poorest farmers have been unable to buy HYV seeds, so they are of no benefit to them.[4]
