Godavari Ratna - New Oil Palm Hybrid Released for Coastal Region of Maharashtra

Abstract

Palm oil is an important source of vegetable oil used in a wide range of products. In India, an area of 19.33 lakh ha in 18 states is identified as the potential area for oil palm cultivation by various Expert Committees constituted by the Government of India. Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), being a potential carbon-sequestering perennial crop by biological means, has helped in mitigating global warming and climatic fluctuations. Considering the need for potentially high-yielding oil palm variety for plantation, ICAR-Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research (IIOPR), Pedavegi, supplied ten new hybrids for testing their performance under different agro-climatic conditions in India. The present study conducted under the All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Palms (Oil palm) at the College of Horticulture, Mulde, Maharashtra revealed that out of ten different hybrids (NRCOP-01 to NRCOP-10), hybrid NRCOP-2 performed consistently better in terms of yield. NRCOP-2 recorded the highest bunch weight (19.22 kg bunch-1), number of fresh fruit bunches per palm (8.14), highest fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) yield (22.14 t ha-1) and highest oil yield (5.36 t ha-1) as compared to other hybrids. Based on twelve years of evaluation, NRCOP-2 was consistently found to be high oil yielding and hence was released for cultivation in the coastal region of Maharashtra and Western Ghat under the name Godavari Ratna during the 2019 Annual Group Meeting of AICRP on Palms.