The future of oil palm clones in Malaysia.

Abstract

High yielding ability ensures the sustainability of a crop through improved resource (land, light, water, fertilizers, labour) use efficiencies besides profitability. Traditionallyperennial tree crop improvement is achieved/expedited through clonal (vegetative) propagation. This prompted the research and development into the tissue culture clonal propagation of oil palm which has no natural means of vegetative propagation in the early 1970s. Oil palm clonal propagation has now become a technology with commercial output of clonal plantlets constituting 5-10% of the annual oil palm planting material requirement in Malaysia. Nevertheless, with the inefficiencies of the tissue culture technique in terms of low amenability and risk of somaclonal variation extant, strategies in clonal propagation have to remain as adjuncts to hybrid breeding programs and strategies. With the lower genetic variability and heritability for oil yield confirmed in advanced DxP hybrids, cloning (and recloning) from such populations is inefficient and runs the risk of concurrent new generations of improved hybrids closing the yield advantage gap of clones. Cloning ortets from the early/recombinant phases of hybrid breeding programmes would be more efficient with the broader genetic variability and higher heritability for yield and other desirable traits. Perhaps the biggest advantage of cloning would be in the early commercial exploitation of new genetic materials from introgression programmes of wide intra or inter-specific crosses which would also broaden the genetic base of the commercial plantings to reduce risk of genetic vulnerability to pest, disease and environmental stress debilitation, ensuring sustainability. These considerations would also apply to the alternative cloning strategies of cloning the best parents for clonal hybrid seed production and cloning the progeny embryos or seedlings of the best progenies.. These alternative strategies are gaining interest especially the former. Clones are unlikely to supersede hybrid seeds as thedominant oil palm planting material until the amenability and fidelity deficiencies in the tissue culture have been resolved or circumvented and their field performance advantage over concurrent improved hybrids clearly demonstrated.