Although we believe that these factors will lead to the
greater adoption of MAS in many instances (especially
for major cereals), there will clearly be situations in
which the incorporation of MAS in plant breeding
programmes will still be very slow or even non-existent,
for example in orphan crop species and in developing
countries (Naylor et al. 2004). In both of these
situations, funding of research and breeding programmes
is extremely limited. The improvement of
orphan crop species, especially in developing
countries—using any method—represents another
great challenge for agricultural scientists.