Oil Palm Breeding

The oil palm is a remarkable crop, producing around 40% of the world’s vegetable oil from around 6% of the land devoted to oil crops. Conventional breeding has clearly been the major focus of genetic improvement in this crop. A mix of improved agronomy and management, coupled with breeding selection have quadrupled the oil yield of the crop since breeding began in earnest in the 1920s. However, as for all perennial crops with long breeding cycles, oil palm faces immense challenges in the coming years with increased pressure from population growth, climate change and the need to develop environmentally sustainable oil palm plantations. In Oil Palm: Breeding, Genetics and Genomics, world leading organizations and individuals who have been at the forefront of developments in this crop, provide their insights and experiences of oil palm research, while examining the different challenges that face the future of the oil palm. The editors have all been involved in research and breeding of oil palm for many years and use their knowledge of the crop and their disciplinary expertise to provide context and to introduce the different research topics covered.

The oil palm is a remarkable crop, producing around 40% of the world’s vegetable oil from around 6% of the land devoted to oil crops. Conventional breeding has clearly been the major focus of genetic improvement in this crop. A mix of improved agronomy and management, coupled with breeding selection have quadrupled the oil yield of the crop since breeding began in earnest in the 1920s. However, as for all perennial crops with long breeding cycles, oil palm faces immense challenges in the coming years with increased pressure from population growth, climate change and the need to develop environmentally sustainable oil palm plantations. In Oil Palm: Breeding, Genetics and Genomics, world leading organizations and individuals who have been at the forefront of developments in this crop, provide their insights and experiences of oil palm research, while examining the different challenges that face the future of the oil palm. The editors have all been involved in research and breeding of oil palm for many years and use their knowledge of the crop and their disciplinary expertise to provide context and to introduce the different research topics covered.

This book compiles the fundamental advances resulting from of oil-palm genome and transcriptome sequencing, and describes the challenges faced and strategies applied in sequencing, assembling and annotating oil palm genome sequences. The availability of genome and transcriptome data has made the mining of a high number of new molecular markers useful for genetic diversity as well as marker-trait association studies and the book presents high-throughput genotyping platforms, which allow the detection of QTL regions associated with interesting oil palm traits such as oil unsaturation and yield components using classical genetic and association mapping approaches. Lastly, it also presents the discovery of major genes governing economically important traits of the oil palm. Covering the history of oil palm expansion, classical and molecular cytogenetics, improvements based on wild and advanced genetic materials, and the science of oil palm breeding, the book is a valuable resource for scientists involved in plant genetic research.

"This is a hands-on, practical guide to describe field trials in oil palm. The location for field trials is key, as is land preparation"--

The oil palm is the world's most valuable oil crop. Its production has increased over the decades, reaching 56 million tons in 2013, and it gives the highest yields per hectare of all oil crops. Remarkably, oil palm has remained profitable through periods of low prices. Demand for palm oil is also expanding, with the edible demand now complemented by added demand from biodiesel producers. The Oil Palm is the definitive reference work on this important crop. This fifth edition features new topics - including the conversion of palm oil to biodiesel, and discussions about the impacts of palm oil production on the environment and effects of climate change alongside comprehensively revised chapters, with updated references throughout. The Oil Palm, Fifth Edition will be useful to researchers, plantation and mill managers who wish to understand the science underlying recommended practices. It is an indispensable reference for agriculture students and all those working in the oil palm industry worldwide.

This is a hands-on, practical guide to describe field trials in oil palm. The location for field trials is key, as is land preparation. Other logistics include the germination of seeds from crossing programmes, planting in a nursery and well-grown seedlings for field planting. The trial design needs to be translated into field lay out. Field planting is a critical point requiring plant care, good labelling, field lining and a system of checks, and must be timed to the rainy season. Recording of trials starts 1 year after planting for crown disease assessment and continues for yield approximately 30 months after field planting. Growth measurements also begin 30 months after planting. Tests for oil yield and quality are carried out one year after yield recording.

The oil palm is the world's most valuable oil crop. With palm oilproduction increasing by more than 50% in the last decade of thetwentieth century and set to double in the next twenty years, ithas never before been so important to understand the history, useand cultivation of this fascinating crop. There have been many new developments since the third edition ofThe Oil Palm in 1988, particularly in the fields of clonalpropagation, agronomy, breeding and molecular genetics. This newedition has been completely rewritten, and is the first book torecord and explore these and many other developments. The book traces the origins and progress of the industry, anddescribes the basic science underlying the physiology, breeding andnutrition of the oil palm. It covers both cutting-edge research,and wider issues such as genetic modification of the crop, thepromise of clonal propagation, and the effects of palm oil on humanhealth. The practical problems of maximising yield of oil andkernels are discussed in relation to the present 'yield gap' andoil extraction rate decline in Malaysia. The oil palm is alsocompared to the soya bean and other oil crops, and the recenthistory of the price of oil palm products is considered in thelight of this. The Oil Palm makes an essential contribution to oil palmresearch and will be an indispensable reference and guide foragricultural students, researchers and all those working,worldwide, in the oil palm industry.

This paper considers oil palm breeding populations of restricted origin which have been developed from wild or almost wild palms. Several Deli dura populations derived from the four palms have been developed independently. Breeding populations derived from wild palms in Zaire, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Nigeria are considered. Progress will be achieved by introgressions of such populations but it also considered desirable to maintain them as pure breeding populations without introgression. [Author's abstract].