United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service research on improving host-plant resistance to pests.

Host-plant resistance is an efficient, economical and environmentally benign approach used to manage many pests and diseases of agricultural crops. After nearly a century of research, the resources and tools have become more refined, but the basic tasks in breeding for resistance have not changed. Resistance must be identified, incorporated into elite germplasm, and deployed in a form useful to growers. In some instances, biotechnology has expedited this process through incorporating a foreign gene(s) for resistance into elite germplasm. The USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has made significant contributions in the development of germplasm with resistance to insects, nematodes and plant diseases. Because resistant plant varieties are an essential component of sustainable production systems, ARS is committed to developing techniques and germplasm to help meet this goal.