Question

Why is self-pollination in flowers a desirable trait in some crops? Give one example

Answer 1

The majority of the 50–60 main grain crops of the world are predominantly self-pollinated.

Self-pollination in flowers a desirable trait in some crops because it results in domestication of crop plants.

In self- pollination, there is no diversity in the genes and therefore the purity of the race is maintained within the crop.

It results in splitting the crop's gene-pool into independent homozygous lines. Variation can be seen in the form of many true breeding cultivars. Because they are automatically “fixed” by the pollination system, they can be easily maintained by the farmer, even if they are planted together.

Also, The plants do not depend on external factors for pollination and even smaller quantities of pollen grains produce have a good success rate in getting pollinated.