Philippine government to adopt new coconut conservation culture

As a means to enhance coconut production, the Philippine government proposes to use a soon-to-be-validated technique of culturing coconut embryos. This technique is directly linked to research program, carried out by Bioversity International, to develop a valid coconut embryo protocol culturing and movement protocol through the International Coconut Genetic Resources Network (COGENT  [2]). This research was carried out with the critical support of the Global Crop Diversity Trust  [3].

The Philippines is the world’s largest exporter of coconut products, with an export market worth around $2 billion. Using this embryo culture technique could help give the country an economic boost.

Coconut is not easy to conserve because its seednuts are large to store, and traditional conservation techniques, such as drying, do not work. In addition, moving seednuts carries the risk of also spreading associated diseases.

Bioversity International, through COGENT member-countries like the Philippines, developed guidelines for the safe international movement   [4]of coconut genetic diversity, and under these guidelines now promotes moving embryos rather than seeds, as it reduces the risk of infection. The management and movement of such delicate embryos needs to be done according to strict protocol as developed and refined in the above-mentioned research program, which ends in February 2012. The protocol should be published in the near future.

This opens the door to new economic possibilities for the Philippines. For example, a local variety, Tutupaen, is attracting international interest because of the anti-diabetic properties contained in its shell. Using embryo culture would facilitate moving it safely from its native Ilocos Region so that it can be cultivated in other parts of the country as well. 

Obtaining coconut germplasm from other countries under international exchange agreements is already benefitting the Philippines as well, enabling the country to expand its available pool of genetic diversity. Plant genetic resources are important as they are the raw materials needed by farmers, scientists, and breeders to help achieve food security in the face of climate change, land and water scarcity and an increasing population. As no single country has all the genetic diversity it needs and is dependent on others, this has created a need for a global pool of agricultural biodiversity that we can all share. A drought resistant variety recently brought to the Philippines from Africa, for example, could help towards mitigating the adverse effects of climate change on production there.  

Bioversity has already helped to establish germplasm exchange agreements through COGENT in the Ivory Coast, West Africa, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka to enable sharing of genetic diversity for coconut.

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