Philippines: Researchers develop high-yield coconut varieties by making hybrids out of hybrids

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)