DEVELOPMENT OF NEW OIL PALM CULTIVARS IN MALAYSIA
A. Kushairi
Abstract
At the beginning of the oil palm industry at the turn of the 20 th century, commercial plantations utilised the thick-shell thin-mesocarp dura planting materials. The breeds were unconsciously and informally selected from the 'best-looking' palms and fruits in the African palm groves or in subsequent decorative avenues elsewhere. Discovery of the single gene inheritance for shell thickness led to the use of the thinnershell thicker oil-bearing mesocarp dura x pisifera (DxP) cultivated variety (cultivar). However, oil palm breeding populations had been derived from few ancestral palms, which hindered selection progress. The basic population of the maternal line in breeding programmes is almost exclusively the Deli dura. Improvements of tenera/pisifera paternal lines were mainly the AVROS, La Me and Yangambi populations. Malaysian oil palm breeders widely practiced the modified recurrent selection (MRS) in improvement programmes.