balita-dot-ph, November 3, 2010 10:27 am

LEGAZPI CITY, Nov. 2 -– Massive planting of laboratory-raised macapuno seedlings is being rushed by the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) in Bicol so that the region currently occupies the driver’s seat in the country’s race for the world’s biggest makapuno producer title.

By starting this time Bicol’s makapuno industry, the region will be able to lead other parts of the archipelago into commercial makapuno production thus, capturing for the country a gargantuan share in the international market of this highly in-demand product, according to Alfredo Rillo, the PCA regional director based here.

“Should we fail, we will be losing the opportunity to our neighboring coconut-growing countries like Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand, among others,” he added.

Since its discovery, makapuno, the mutant Philippine coconut distinguished from the regular variety for its shorter growing tree, smaller nuts and fleshy meat, has been popularly treated as a delectable dessert whether simply cooked in syrup or added as flavoring to other desserts.

As a number of local food processors emerged to cater to the demands for ready-to-eat makapuno sweets, the volume of makapuno nut production remains not enough to fill the demand created by these processors for raw meat of the nut.

Rillo said there is very high demand for makapuno both form the local primary and secondary food processors. Based on a recent national survey, four million more nuts are required to fill the gap between the current and required supplies.

This demand was boosted up by earlier studies conducted by Dr. Ma. Judith Rodriguez of the PCA’s Albay Research Center (ARC) on the utilization of the nut’s highly viscous liquid endosperm that revealed high content of galactomannan, a polysaccharide, usable as alternative raw material for the production of hand and body lotion, hand sanitizers, facial masks, hair cream and hair gel, shampoo, conditioner and even as biodegradable edible film.

The existing stand of makapuno-bearing palms in the country however would not be enough to supply the needed volume and only the use of true-to-type planting materials would ensure supply of makapuno nuts from 75 to 100 percent of the total yield.

Moreover, other potential nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and industrial makapuno-based products could not be explored with the current limited supply due to the very low nut yield of traditional Makapuno-bearing palms in the field that could only answer up to 25 percent of the existing demand.

The danger of losing a potential industry then emerged until the PCA-ARC in Barangay Banao, Guinobatan town started the commercial production of true-to-type makapuno planting materials and optimized of the embryo culture technique in its production through the support from the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ).

ARC’s chief scientist Erlinda Rillo who headed its tissue culture team said, the success in the development of the embryo culture technique initially developed by the group of the late Dr. Emerita de Guzman of University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB) in the late 1960’s revolutionized makapuno nut production.

The project is a collaborative effort among various PCA-units and Cavite State University. It was primarily aimed at producing true-to-type makapuno planting materials using embryo culture technology and dispersed at low cost to Filipino farmers.

This project is part of a program which endeavors the development of macapuno industry in the Philippines.
It was initially funded by the GTZ from 1992 to 1995 and was expanded thru the financial support of Department of Science and Technology–Philippines Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCARRD) from 1996 to 2002.

After that period, the project survived through the income generated from the sale of embryo cultured makapuno (ECM) seedlings each at P500-P1,000 depending on size and location of source.

In 1999, 134,000 ECM seedlings were required to plant 1,160 hectares and serve the eight million macapuno nuts required by the market prompting a massive planting of laboratory-raised varieties. Supply however was scarce as the production was single-handedly done by the ARC at very limited resources.

More lately, funding support from High Value Commodity Crops (HVCC) of the Department of Agriculture (DA) came in to support activities for increased production.

At present, commercial production of ECM seedlings is an on-going activity at various PCA units mainly the ARC, Davao Research Center, Zamboanga Research Center, PCA Regional Office in Palo, Leyte, PCA Provincial Office in Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan and Cavite State University in Indang, Cavite.

The program had already enabled the field establishment of more or less 5,500 ECM stand throughout the country. At productive stage, all these palms will translate to a monthly income of approximately P800,000 and will insure continuous supply for processing and research and development towards industrial, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and other application of makapuno.

The makapuno embryo culture technique improved by the ARC research team headed by Mrs. Rillo involved the culture of the palm embryos in specially formulated medium in vitro and establishment to soil.

The culture starts from removing the husk of the selected nuts that are brought near the lab and their solid endosperm embedding the embryos are extracted using a cork borer.

Inside the lab, the endosperm cores embedding the embryos are decontaminated with100 percent commercial bleach for 20 minutes and rinsed with sterile water. Under aseptic condition, the embryos are excised from the endosperm and planted into Modified Eeuwens’ (Y3) medium.

The cultures are incubated at 28°C under light condition. These are transferred to freshly prepared media every month until ready for soil-planting.

Seedlings with at least one primary root and one expanded leaf are ready for soil establishment. They are brought out from the lab to acclimatize them to natural light and temperature conditions in a screen house for at least five days while still inside the culture vessels.

They are then taken out from the culture vessels, rinsed with water, dipped in fungicide solution, planted to soil medium containing one part garden soil and one part coconut coir dust and incubated inside a humidity tent.

After at least a month, the established seedlings are transferred to a screen house for hardening. Hardened seedlings are transferred to a nursery for further growth until ready for field-planting.

This improved protocol had successfully reduced the planting materials’ growing period from 13 to ten 10 months and it has been simplified by doing away with most of the complicated laboratory steps. The shortened period and the simplifications reduced the planting materials’ production cost.

As a viability indicator, 10 laboratories at present are actively engaged in commercial ECM production, with or without PCA’s technical corroboration, Mrs Rillo said. [By Danny O. Calleja(PNA) LOR/Doc/cbd]

Source: PCA-Bicol races for RP as world’s top makapuno producer