Historical

FARC with its technical know-how in acclimatization of tissue culture plantlets and the appropriate physical infrastructure, collaborated in the 90’s with Anthurium producers for successful introduction of several new varieties. The industry required renewal of varieties with new shades, and thus, for the period 1991 to 1997, a total of 123,404 Anthurium tissue culture plantlets imported by the growers from Holland & Plantek (Singapore) were conditioned and hardened at the FARC Nursery & supplied to the growers. The cost of processing these imported plants was Rs 3.55/unit.

a) Anthurium Breeding:	A FARC/AREU collaborative Research & Development project,
funded by FARC

The objective is the production of new Anthurium varieties using Tissue Culture Techniques (zygotic embryogenesis) for production of plantlets and thus obtaining an increase in the range of varieties available to Anthurium Producers.

 This is a long term project which started in May 2000, with crossing between local and imported Anthurium varieties, performed by researchers of AREU. Mature spadixes (Anthurium flowers) were collected by FARC technical staff from the Shade House, Crop Research Stations , Réduit.

After the first phase, i.e, protocol research and development for zygotic embryogenesis of Anthurium, zygotes of the various crosses were initiated under in-vitro conditions for production of in-vitro plantlets.

A total of 5690 hardened plants were produced, hardened and delivered free of charge by the FARC Tissue Culture Laboratory & Nursery to AREU, for field evaluation and agronomic characterization.

The outcome so far of the above work has been the production of five new Anthurium varieties, namely Ceres, Achilles, Luna, Juno and Icarus, that were released by AREU and were given to FARC for micro-propagation in September 2006.

Mother plants of these 5 varieties were collected from the shade house of AREU and in-vitro work started soon after. Three varieties namely Ceres, Achilles & Icarus have been successfully initiated and multiplied. A total of 957 hardened plants (300 Ceres, 262 Achilles & 395 Icarus) have been supplied free of charge to AREU up to now. The price of these plants is Rs 15/potted plant.

Present Situation

Trials on in-vitro propagation of the two varieties mentioned above: Juno & Luna, will be re-initiated.

Mother plants of two new varieties, coded as MA (Midori x Acropolis) and MN (Midori x Nitta), were collected from the Shade House, Crop Research Stations, Réduit in April 2008 for initiation of trials on in-vitro callus induction, callus regeneration & plantlets multiplication.

b) Anthurium (Contractual Micropropagation)

 This project, which is demand driven, started in February 1998, following a request from a private Anthurium grower, for the micropropagation of chosen commercial varieties. Mother plants were collected from the Private Nursery on 13 thOctober, 1998.

Micropropagation of the commercial Anthurium varieties selected by the grower was undertaken under Contractual Agreement made between the grower and the FARC. Following this first successful and similar contractual arrangement made for micropropagation, several growers subsequently made similar requests (and new requests are still coming).

The steps involved in the project are as follows:

- Request made by grower to FARC for propagation of the variety(ies) selected by the grower

a) Experimental Stage

• Trials on in-vitro callus induction, callus regeneration, plantlets multiplication and rooting are initiated. This is an initial research that needs to be conducted for each variety as response to culture media differs.

b) Production Stage

• Grower informed on progress and outcome which may be successful or otherwise.
• Contract signed between grower and FARC
• Large scale micro-propagation under the Contractual Agreement follows.
• Supply of hardened tissue culture plants to grower.

Time interval between initial request and supply depends mainly on duration of experimental stage (1-3 years, depending on variety): 2-4 years.

Source of mother plants :
-The customer (i.e the Anthurium producer)
-Responsibility for IPR on variety lies SOLELY on the grower/client.

Page last modified: 10 March 2011