Abstract: The present invention relates to novel methods for increasing recombination so that the resulting plant or plant material has an increased rate of recombination. In particular, the present invention provides methods for increase of recombination in agricultural plants. Increased recombination is achieved by a controlled temperature treatment by aligning meiosis progression in a specific treatment window to macroscopically or microscopically detectable characteristics. Furthermore, the methods described herein are also useful to shift meiotic recombination to regions in the genome which usually show a reduced amount of recombination. The resulting plants can for example be used to introduce new genetic variations into breeding pools and breeding populations, as the methods can be performed without a significant loss in fertility usually going along with uncontrolled heat/cold treatments.