Project Impact

The Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI), India

Since 2005, CPCRI (Kerala, India) has received and established more than 200 clones from the International Cocoa Quarantine Centre at Reading. The clones received have been conserved in field genebanks at ICAR-CPCRI, Regional Station, Vittal in Karnataka State under arecanut/coconut shade, and 15 Amazon clones have been planted under oil palm at Andhra Pradesh (as an alternate genebank/field trial).

The received material has been characterised for a range of traits including yield, pod components, quality/flavour, resistance to pests and diseases, and drought tolerance. Clones that have shown resistance/tolerance to Phytophthora pod rot (blackpod), tea mosquito bug (Helopeltis spp.) and drought are now being incorporated into the breeding programme at CPCRI. Forty-five clones have been field-screened for pod rot resistance and compatibility studies are being conducted using artificial pollination to assess the cross compatibility reaction of clones to be used in the crossing programme.