Speaker
Description
Palm oil is an editable vegetable oil widely consumed by people worldwide. There are two species of palm
trees, namely Elaeis guineensis and Elaeis oleifera. The E. oleifera, possesses interesting traits such as
dwarf, compact, and potential disease resistance. However, it has a low oil yield and pollination concerns
as compared to E. guineensis. To address this, hybridisation can be used to transfer the beneficial features
of E. oleifera to the high-yielding E. guineensis. FGV started working with E. oleifera in the 1960s and has
now successfully bred to the third-generation hybrid via backcross (BC) strategy. A trial was conducted to
evaluate the performance of BC3 as compared to the progeny of E. guineensis. The trial was laid in
November 2013 at the FGVAS Plantation in Serting Hilir, with five replications using a randomised
complete block design (RCBD), consisting of seven backcross materials and two standard controls. The
performance of bunch yield and bunch components were assessed and analysed using R statistics, and means
were compared at a 0.05 significance level using Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (DMRT). The trial means
for fresh fruit bunch (FFB), bunch number (BNO), Mesocarp to Fruit (M/F) and Oil to Bunch (O/B) were
91.72 kg/p/yr (13.57 t/ha/yr), 13.22 bunches/p/yr, 91.68% and 32.72%, respectively. In comparison to other
progenies, PB42 had the highest FFB (109.41 kg/p/yr) and BNO (15.24 bunches/p/yr). On the other hand,
progeny PB25 attained the highest M/F (94.26%) and O/B (33.92%). The third generation of hybrid has
significantly improved its yield performance and surpassed other progenies in the trial. This finding
indicates interspecific hybrid material is feasible for commercialization in future and the exploitation should
persist to observe more desired traits from E. oleifera.
Keywords: oil palm, Elaeis oleifera, backcross, bunch yield, bunch components
