The information generated from the previous ACIAR project was collected and collated to produce the new embryo culture manual manuscript. This manual manuscript then underwent a series of editing steps to accommodate the views from the partners involved in the original project. The final edited version of the manual manuscript is now available for publishing by ACIAR in English, Indonesian and Vietnamese. The manual will find use in many laboratories including those of the Coconut Genetic Network (COGENT) International Coconut Gene banks which are located in the five main coconut-producing regions of the world.
The second part of the present project concerned the improvement of an embryo transplantation technique for the rapid production of seedlings of the high value coconut types. This part of the project took place at the Albay Research Center (ARC) of the Philippines Coconut Authority (PCA) and also involved the provision of some laboratory equipment and staff training at the University of Queensland.
A number of experiments were undertaken at ARC in attempt to improve the previously developed embryo transplantation technique. However, as yet no improvements have resulted in the germination of any of the transplanted nuts. This may relate to the fact that only poor quality fruit were available to do this work. Fruit quality had been significantly reduced by a series of severe typhoons hitting the region during the course of this work. Work is now under way to improve the technique using higher quality fruit.
The main impacts of the project have been for the Filipino project partner (ARC). The capacity of their centre to undertake coconut research has increased, enabling the present work to continue on, with some small amount of national support after the present project finished. There is now an opportunity for the centre to take the outcomes of the project, particularly those to do with embryo culture, to the next stage of development and maybe commercialisation.
A pilot study is now needed to scale-up the approach, particularly to cater for the high-value coconuts such as the aromatic types Kopyor and Makapuno. At the same time the capacity of the partner country would be significantly improved if a genetic pool of these types of coconut could be established there. The centre could then exhibit to private investors and coconut farmers the commercial potential of the technique. This pilot project would increase the likelihood of the present project (and other previously ACIAR-funded projects) having a higher impact and for that impact to be realised more quickly.