Developing more resilient, higher yield coconuts

The Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Research Institute for Oil and Oil Plants (IOOP) implemented a coconut development project from 2017-2020 to improve the production capacity of high quality coconut varieties, including Ta, Dau, Xiem, Eo, Dua, and Sap, in addition to the JVA1 hybrid variety.

Application of new coconut varieties increased the yield of coconut orchards from 7,900 fruits per hectare per year in 2015 to 11,000 fruits/ha/year in 2021

Promoting new variety application

Project director Thai Nguyen Quynh Thu said the project maintained 37 hectares of original seedling coconut gardens in the Mekong Delta’s Dong Go and Ben Tre coconut centers, and Trang Bang and Tay Ninh seed production centers. Coconut trees grew well and provided a stable yield, contributing to meeting the demand for high quality coconut seedling production.

The project developed industrial processes to produce the Sap coconut variety using embryo culture technology, which has a success rate of 60.6 percent, 6.7 percent higher than previous processes. In particular, the project built four new coconut variety production demonstration models, including a model at the Trang Bang Seed Production Center in Tay Ninh Province, a Ta coconut variety production demonstration model in Tien Giang and Ben Tre provinces (Ta coconut variety is salt-tolerant, adaptive to saline intrusion areas in the Mekong Delta), a Dua coconut production demonstration model in Kien Giang Province’s Phu Quoc District, and a Dua coconut production demonstration model based on biological methods in Bac Lieu Province.

From 2018-2020, the project produced 48,850 tall Ta and Dau coconut seedlings, 262,569 short Dua, Xiem and Eo coconut seedlings, 955 Sap coconut seedlings, and 6,268 JVA1 hybrid coconut seedlings, Thu said.

Yield grows 20-30 percent

According to Thu, after the project was accomplished, all of original and hybrid coconut seedling gardens provided about 300,000 seedlings for new cultivation and improvement of 1,500ha of coconut gardens nationwide. The application of new coconut varieties increased the yield of coconut orchards from 7,900 fruits per hectare per year in 2015 to 11,000 fruits/ha/year in 2021, an increase of 3,100 fruits per tree per year. With a price of VND5,000 per fruit, the profit is expected to increase VND15.5 million per hectare annually.

The project’s new varieties are of higher quality and their yield is 20-30 percent higher than that of conventional ones, Thu added.

Investment in original seedling orchards, selection of mother coconut trees and application of appropriate propagation technology all help create young coconut trees of good genetic quality highly tolerant to disease. They have helped improve the yield of coconut for milk to 70 fruits per tree per year and that of coconut for oil to 55 fruits per tree per year.

The project offered five training courses in high quality coconut breeding and intensive farming techniques for 153 participants from south central coastal provinces.

Bigger coconut yields will help increase the annual output value of other economic sectors, such as the processing, trade and transportation industries.