Agrotechnology

Collection of elite oil palms from exotic commercial plantations in India

International Conference on Agricultural & Horticultural Sciences

September 14-15, 2012 Hyderabad International Convention Centre, India

Goutam Mandal, R.K. Mathur, K. Sunil Kumar, P. Murugesan, K. Meena Kumari, B. Balaji and A. Nagaraju

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Agrotechnol

Abstract:

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is native of West Africa. It has been introduced as an ornamental plant into India and now widely cultivated as a source of vegetable oil. The commercially grown oil palm is a tenera produced by crossing, dura as mother palms and pisifera as the male parent. The present day breeding programmes are based on utilization of available genetic resources in the country which are a very few. There is a scope of presence of parental materials like dura and pisifera in commer - cial tenera plantations of exotic planting materials which can have future use in crop improvement. Collection and exploitation of such selected elite palms helps in enriching the existing genetic base of Indian oil palm. Therefore, survey and collection of differ - ent exotic source of commercial plantations were carried out during 2010-12 in oil palm growing states in India. In survey, total 41 numbers of collections were made from Karnataka (9), Andhra Pradesh (2), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (9) and Goa (1).