Conservation and Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources
26.
The Asia-Pacific Region is rich in plant diversity which is a treasure for its present and future agricultural development and may also provide a strong bargaining power in the hands of developing countries to share new biotechnology from the North in a rational manner. The high indigenous variability should prove of great advantage for biotechnology work in the Region. Conservation and availability of plant genetic resources is, therefore, fundamental to the progress and usefulness of plant biotechnology and should receive high priority.
27.
The developing Asia-Pacific has almost a monopoly of production and export of oil palm and coconut. In vitro cultured material of oil palm has been and is currently being used for large-scale plantings in the Region. But, unfortunately, in some plantations, when the vitroplants came to fruiting it was discovered that fruit set was not as intense as expected and up to 30 percent sterility was recorded. This experience should be taken note of by other countries contemplating to resort to commercial in vitro micropropagation of oil palm for large-scale plantations. Further, it underlines the need for concerted effort to overcome the technical difficulties in plant regeneration from tissue culture and ensuring uniformity and full fertility of clonal ramets. This is currently being attempted by a number of laboratories, private and public, but much of the work in private sector is shrouded in trade secrecy to the disadvantage of overall development of oil palm.
28.
The advantage of the new technique in coconut improvement is obvious when one recalls that each seednut of hybrid MAWA introduced from the Côte d'Ivoire into the Philippines in the 1970s sold for up to six US dollars. The time lag between identification of an elite F1 hybrid and availability of the F1 seeds for commercial planting, let alone the cost and infrastructures required for establishing and managing seed gardens, is a major bottleneck in large-scale adoption of coconut hybrid varieties. So far, commercial in vitro technique for coconut is not available, although clones of coconut plantlets from tissue culture were obtained in the early 1980s. All-out effort should therefore be made to standardize in vitro micropropagation, including somatic embryogenesis techniques, in coconut to increase productivity of this tree of life for millions and the only plantation crop which truly belongs to small holders.
29.
Several plant species, including a few commercial species, produce recalcitrant seeds and thus are difficult to be conserved through seeds. Further, some species are shy seed bearers and even fail to produce seeds. In addition, living collections of clonally propagated perennial crops face the problems of maintenance of heterozygous and heterogeneous populations, long life cycle and large space requirements, and high possibility of exposure to threats of pests and diseases and other biotic and abiotic stresses. In Papua New Guinea, collections of taro were lost to blight and viral diseases. To circumvent these difficulties, in vitro conservation of vegetatively propagated and recalcitrant seed-producing species is being increasingly adopted. Several countries in the Region, including Pacific island countries, have developed facilities and expertise for in vitro conservation of root and tuber crops, bananas, orchids, and oil palm.
30.
In vitro culture should be used widely to transfer germplasm and planting materials to minimize the risk of introduction of pests and diseases, especially for roots and tubers and other clonally propagated crops in the island countries where there are greater risks involved. China,