The Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) is
succeeding in its 16-year search for ideal coconut varieties
to replace aging and unproductive coconuts through a novel
method, making synthetic varieties out of hybrids and ensuring
higher yields through better coco juice, copra and other
byproducts.
Administrator Oscar Garin has been trying to implement a
replanting system that would reduce substantially the tall varieties favored by
Filipino farmers and replace them with hybrids that come from multiple
ancestors, with most of the planting materials developed in the silty, clay loam
of the 425-hectare San Roque PCA farm in Zamboanga City.
Garin, who has been in the forefront of the battle against
the invasive coconut pest Brontispa longissima, earlier slapped a moratorium on
the cutting of coconut trees to preserve tree stands that had been saved from
the pest and improve production.
For nearly 70 years, the country dictated copra prices since
the Philippines sold nearly 80 percent of its domestic production of coconuts,
scientifically known as Cocos nucifera L.
PCA breeders at the Zamboanga Research Center (ZRC) are
actually working to develop a unique farmers' variety that would fit the
tradition of planting seeds from any high -yielding tree for successive
cropping.
Since the late 70s, PCA had been developing an open
pollinated variety (OPV) through the hybridization of hybrids of six Tall
coconut cultivars, with research intensifying in the last 16 years.
Thus, they have developed a genetically multi-ancestored
coconut variety that combines the agronomic qualities of the four local farmers'
traditional Tall varieties (Laguna, Bago Oshiro, Baybay and Tagnanan) and two
foreign varieties (West African and Rennel.)
According to Garin, the results of this untried method of
coconut breeding could provide the answer to the country's persistent need for
low input, high quality planting material.
In effect, the PCA's work is the pioneering genetically
enhanced coconut variety that combines high yield precocity, vigor and durable
genetic stability from generation to generation, said Ramon Rivera, head of
ZRC's breeding and genetics division.
The synthetic variety, now known as PCA Syn Var001, Rivera,
along with PCA breeders G.A. Santos, S.M. Rivera, E. Emanuel and G.B. Baylon,
noted that to revive and develop the coconut industry, there was a need to use
fertilizers to increase yield in old strands and accelerate replanting of
"senile" and unproductive palms.
The hybrids grow faster and are more precocious apart from
producing higher and more stable yield of copra. However, they produce many
small nuts and are threatened by short lifespans due to the influence of dwarf
parent and could be unsuitable for the partiality of farmers to use seeds for a
net crop.
Using the seeds from hybrid varieties or simply planting
second generation filial seeds was discouraged mainly due to its disastrous
results technically, the second generation seeds were mixtures of all sorts of
individuals resulting from combined effects of open pollination, cross
pollination, self -pollination and backcrossing that occurs during the time of
pollination.
In overcoming the problem, the PCA focused its breeding
strategy on the farmers' practice. The idea was to breed and select coconut
planting materials with high and stable yield. It should also reproduce through
open pollination.
In their research, the PCA breeders found that coconut
hybrids were good, but developing countries like the Philippines could hardly
sustain their use. As they cited in their study, "the use of the synthetic
variety offered prospects but it would take a long time before we can perfect
this unconventional method."
Yet, they also quickly pointed out that this unconventional
method of "making 'hybrids out of hybrids' could be the cheapest and sustainable
answer to the persistent problem of supplying elite planting materials for the
country's planting and replanting program."
Today, the propagation of the synthetic variety is being considered by the
PCA as the ultimate strategy in the mass propagation of improved materials.
biolife news service
