Sonalika and Kalyan Sona are varieties of:

📌 Concept:
→ With the increase in population there is also a need for increase in food production and plant breeding has helped in that.
→ Plant breeding is purposeful manipulation of plants to create new varieties having the desired qualities like-
💡 Giving good yield and improved quality
💡 Being disease resistant
💡 Better suited for cultivation
💡 Increased tolerance to environmental stress
→ In India at around 1960s, several high yielding varieties of Rice and Wheat were developed using plant breeding.
→ This led to an enormous increase in food production and this phase is referred to as Green Revolution.

✅ Explanation:
Option 1) Wheat
→ In 1963, semi-dwarf variety of wheat, Sonalika and Kalyan Sona were introduced in wheat-growing belts of India.
→ Both of them were high yielding and disease resistant.
→ They were developed by Norman E. Borlaug at International Centre for Wheat and Maize Improvement in Mexico.
→ Hence, this option is correct.

Option 2) Rice
→ Several semi-dwarf varieties of rice were also developed at different countries.
→ Semi-dwarf variety rice derived from IR-8 was developed at International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines.
→ Taichung Native 1 was developed at Taiwan.
→ Jaya and Ratna were the semi-dwarf high yielding varieties developed in India.
→ Hence, this option is incorrect.

Option 3) Millet
→ Hybrid varieties of millets like maize, jowar and bajra were developed in India.
→ Hybrid breeding helped in development of varieties having high yield and resistance to water stress.
→ Hence, this option is incorrect.

Option 4) Tobacco
→ During Green Revolution, the major focus was on development of higher varieties of food yielding crops like wheat, rice, millets, etc and not on non-food crops like tobacco.
→ Hence, this option is incorrect.