Breeding of Fruit and Plantation Crops 2 + 1

Germplasm Collection

Research Stations working on cocoa in India :
1) CPCRI Regional Station, Vittal, South Kanara, Karnataka
2) KAU Vellanikkara, Thrissur



• In a little more than 2 century, commercial cultivation of cocoa has extended from its centre of origin in South America to West Africa, the Far East and Oceania. It has become an important crop throughout the humid tropics. However, material for commercial plantings has been derived from a very narrow genetic base leading to low productivity in cocoa. Realizing the need to improve the genetic diversity, scientific expeditions were conducted to collect wild cocoa from the natural habitats. The materials collected in these expeditions are now maintained in national and international germplasm collections in Central and South America and in the Caribbeans.


• Collections at Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion & En-senanza (CATIE), Costa Rica International Cocoa Gene Bank (ICG), Trinidad and CEPLAC, Brazil have been designated as prima¬ry collections and the germplasm is freely available to breeders. Transfer of germplasm from International Germ-plasm Centres to user countries is done through interme¬diate quarantine, of 2 years, with the facilities at Reading University, UK and at CIRAD, Montpellier, France. In order to undertake long-term breeding activities, the Inter¬national Group for the Genetic Improvement of Cocoa (INGENIC) was created in 1993.


• The important parent materials for cocoa germplasm are:
1. ICS selections from Imperial College of Tropical Agri¬culture in Trinidad
2. Upper Amazon parents like IMC, NA, PA and SCA
3. Amelonado which originated in West Africa


• In India, cocoa germplasm collections are conserved with further exploration at CPCRI Regional Station, Vittal (291 accessions) and College of Horticulture, Kerala Agri¬cultural University, Vellanikkara (500 accessions).These collections were from Mslsysia, Ghana, Nigeria, Amazon, Trinidad, Brazil, Ecuador, UK, Mexico, Jamaica clones and few local collections from Wynad, Kerala and Shiradi ghats, Karnataka.


• Presently, germplasm accessions are conserved in field either in the form of seedlings or as clones. The standard¬ized clonal multiplications at various centres have paved the way for multiplication and maintenance of accessions with greater degree of true breeding values.