Breeding of Fruit and Plantation Crops 2 + 1

Establishment of clonal orchards

• For F1 seed production and for supply of quality planting materials, clonal orchards were established. Based on the compatibility reactions self-incompatible but cross-compatible high yielding parents were selected and planted in clonal orchards. Two self-incompatible parents grown together in a bi-clonal orchard will produce F1 pods of specific identity or known parentage through natural crossing. In poly-clonal orchard more self-incompatible clones are assembled together and all the pods harvested are F1 hybrids. These clonal orchards (6 bi-clonal and 1 poly-clonal) with 1200 trees were established at CPCRI, Research Centre, Kidu, Nettana, Karnataka.

Multiplication

• Vegetative propagation through soft wood grafting method was also standardized for multiplication of selected accessions and high yielding varieties for supply as well as for early evaluation.In coffee, a spontaneous hybrid of C. canephora x C. arabica was introduced. Interspecific hybrids C. congensis x C. canephora, C. liberica x C. eugenoides. The hybrid resembled Arabica in cup quality and possessed tolerance to drought and rust.In oil palm, Tenera hybrids between Deli dura x AVROS pisifera with tremendous yield potential were evolved. In India, 2 high yielding teneras selected from cross combinations involving 11 duras of Malaysian origin and 5 pisiferas of Nigerian origin were released for cultivation. Considerable yield improvement was reported for hybrid.

Haploids

• An individual with the gametic chromosome number is called as haploid. Haploids are weaker than diploids and are of little agricultural value directly. But they are of great interest because they offer certain unique opportunities in crop improvement. They are used for developing homozygous diploid lines, following chromosome doubling in two years. This greatly reduces the time and labour required for the isolation of inbreds and pure lines.