There is an ongoing societal debate about plant breeding systems and their impact on stakeholders in food systems. Hybrid breeding and hybrid seed have become controversial topics as they are believed to mostly serve high-tech agricultural systems. This article focuses on the perspective of commercial plant breeders when developing new cultivars of food crops. Arguably, hybrid breeding is the most effective breeding system for genetic improvement of crops, enhancing yields, improving product quality and increasing resistance against (a)biotic stresses. Nonetheless, hybrid breeding is not commercially applied in all crops. We analyse how biological and economic factors determine whether a commercial plant breeder opts for the hybrid system or not. We show that the commercial feasibility of hybrid breeding depends on the crop and business case. In conclusion, the commercial application of hybrid breeding in crops seems to be hampered mostly by high costs of seed production. Case studies regarding the hybrid transitions in maize, wheat and potato are included to illustrate these findings.

关于植物育种系统及其对粮食系统利益相关者的影响的社会辩论正在进行中。杂交育种和杂交种子已成为有争议的话题，因为它们被认为主要服务于高科技农业系统。本文侧重于商业植物育种者在开发粮食作物新品种时的观点。可以说，杂交育种是作物遗传改良、提高产量、提高产品质量和增强对（a）生物胁迫的抵抗力的最有效的育种系统。尽管如此，杂交育种并不是在所有作物中都得到商业应用。我们分析生物和经济因素如何决定商业植物育种者是否选择杂交系统。我们表明，杂交育种的商业可行性取决于作物和商业案例。总之，杂交育种在作物中的商业应用似乎主要受到种子生产成本高的阻碍。包括有关玉米、小麦和马铃薯杂交转变的案例研究来说明这些发现。