5. Philippines

The most active tissue culture work in the Philippines is being carried out at the Institute of Plant Breeding in micropropagation, germplasm conservation, disease elimination, and crop improvement. The laboratory works on vegetables (tomato and white potato), fruit species (rambuttan, pineapple, papaya, citrus, banana, and durian), plantation crops (sugarcane, rattan, bamboo, ramie), cereals (corn, wheat), legumes, and ornamentals (Anthurium, orchids, Mussaenda). The tissue culture program of the Institute of Plant Breeding was expanded in 1989-1990 under a new Cellular and Molecular Plant Biology Programme (Zamora and Barba, 1990).

Yams are micropropagated by culturing shoot tips and modal segments. Micropropagated bananas (cultivars Lakatan, Saba , and Bungulan) are evaluated for plant and yield traits, and are similar to sucker-derived bananas. However, growth is faster among micropropagated bananas than sucker-derived bananas. Flowering also occurs earlier among micropropagated plants (Zamora et al., 1989). Elimination of mosaic and banana bunchy top viruses by isolation of meristems from heat-pretreated plants and subsequent in vitro culture became possible (Aamora and Ramos, 1989).

From the shoot tip-grafting technique developed by Spanish researchers (Navarro et al., 1975), the meristem-budding technique has been adapted to suit locally available citrus and to produce plants free of tristeza and leaf-mottling diseases (Zamora et al., 1988). The technique has been extended to the Bureau of Plant Industry for the production of disease-free citrus plants.

At the National Institute of Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology, research activities include producing monoclonal antibodies to detect citrus tristeza virus, banana mosaic virus, banana bract mosaic virus, banana bunchy top virus, and papaya ringspot virus (Zamora and Barba, 1990).

There are several research and commercial tissue culture laboratories in the Philippines. These research laboratories have developed tissue culture techniques for disease elimination and micropropagation in ornamentals and in food crop species, ranging from vegetables to plantation crops. Most commercial laboratories are carrying out orchid tissue culture, very few of them have gone into plantation and food crop species. The disparity in cost of micropropagated plants versus conventional propagules and the resources available to small farmers limit the use of micropropagated plants (Zamora and Barba, 1990). For more detailed information, see Sasson (1193).

Scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) estimated that the tiny nitrogen-fixing fern Azolla was used on less than 2% of the world;s total rice cultivating area of 150 million ha, whereas its beneficial effect has been demonstrated. Azolla can double its biomass every 2-5 days and supply nitrogen to the paddy field. IRRI experiments showed that it could reduce the total weed mass by 72%, thereby diminishing the need for applying expensive herbicides. Azolla contains between 22 and 37% protein and can be consumed as animal feed, but also directly by humans, as in omelettes and burgers (Komen, 1990).

6. Thailand

Thailand has led the world in ornamental flowers, such as orchids, and in many processed fruits and vegetables, such as canned pineapple, fruit juice, and concentrates, and canned baby corn. Plant tissue culture was introduced into the Thai orchid industry in 1964, and the continuity of research and development has kept Thai orchids popular worldwide. Thailand also continues to be the world leading exporter of rice and cassava. It is also very strong in frozen products, particularly those arising from aquaculture (shrimps and prawns), but also new vegetable varieties such as green soybean and okra.

Current research initiative under the leadership of the National Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology are aimed to foster the development of biotechnologies and accelerate the transfer of these technologies from local as well as overseas sources. Recent achievements included:

1. The setting up of companies to produce biofertilizers from algae and Rhizobium.
2. The establishment of a new firm for the production of phycocyanin and shrimp larvae feed from Spirulina.
3. The commercial production of virus-free potato tubers for the supply of fast-food chains and snack producers who were spreading over Asian countries.
4. The development of a heat-tolerant shiitake mushroom, now produced by small farmers in the north and northeast of Thailand.

The National Corn and Sorghum Research Program was organized in 1966 as a cooperative effort involving Kasetsart University, the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, and the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1983, the International Center for the Improvement of Maize and Wheat replaced the Rockerfeller Foundation in this venture. This program provided Thai researchers, in particular at Kasetsart Univrsity, have applied biotechnologies to the improvement of crop species.

This is particularly true in horticulture: tissue culture, used for genetic preservation of outstanding cultivars, rapid propagation, and mutation breeding, has been applied to several fruit crops.

The Department of Agriculture in the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, together with staff from several departments at Kasetsart University, have contributed to the development and extension of straw mushroom (Volvariella volvacea) production technologies throughout Thailand. According to the survey conducted by the Department of Agricultural Extension from 1965 to 1968, the ten largest spawn makers in Bangkok altogether produced an average of 832,250 cans of straw mushroom spawn per year. Straw mushroom cultivation has become an important biotechnology-based industry and a supplementary source of income for many farmers. Shiitake mushrooms (Lentinus edodes) also represent a major food item, but they are mostly sold in a dried form. The development of systems for growth in simple indoor facilities can create a worldwide market for fresh mushrooms. Fore more detailed information, see Sasson (1993).

The King of Thailand, Bhumibhol Adulyadej (Rama IX), has been a promoter of rural development in his country and over 1000 so-called Royal Projects testify to his prominent role in this respect. Some of these contained a biotechnological component. The King's goal was to curtail proppy-growing and bring legitimate livelihood to Thailand's hilly tribes through crop substitution. These crop species would lure farmers away from opium production and also arrest the destruction of forests and watersheds.

Public and private agencies assisted in research and development as well as in the transfer of crop production and processing technologies. Contributions of the National Science and Technology Development Agency included variety selection, massive propagation, and variety improvement of cut flowers by tissue culture, development of virus-free potato tubers and strawberry runners, heat-tolerant shiitake mushrooms, and high-efficiency wastewater treatment for the food factories.

Necessary infrastructure was not omitted (e.g. villae roads, electricity grid, and small irrigation devices and systems). Foreign assistance came from the United Nations agencies, New Zealand, United States, and Taiwan. The project buys the farmers' produce, then grades, packages, and markets it. It has turned a profit for the villagers, also by processing their jams and wines, frozen strawberries canned vegetables, dried fruits, and flowers for export. Poppy cultivation has declined by 85% as the farmers became vegetable, fruit, coffee, and flower growers.

The Thai Department of Agriculture, in Bangkok, produces legume inoculants distributed by the Thai Department of Agriculture Extension and dealers in the private sector. There had been a considerable growth in the use of these inoculants : from 3.36 tonnes in 1977 to about 200 tonnes in 1992.

7. Vietnam

Rice breeding deserves the highest priority. Anther culture and the derived haploid lines have been used in Vietnam since 1980 in the institutes of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industries Cooperation with China, where millions of hectares have been planted with hybrid rice cultivars derived from haploid breeding, could help Vietnam catch up.

Potato has become a major food crop in Vietnam since the 1970s, after the new, higher yielding rice varieties of the green revolution had enabled the Vietnamese farmer to grow a winter crop between two rice crops. A rapid propagation procedure was developed through the collaborative efforts between scientists of the National Council for Scientific Research (NCSR) Institute of Biotechnology in Ho Chi Minh City and farmers in the Dalat region. The so-called flash out system (FOS) combines in vitro techniques ( the starting point was potato plantlets of a selected variety grown on an artificial medium cut into microcuttings that give rise to plantlets) and conventional vegetaive propagation (apical and axillary bud cuttings that give rise to new plantlets). The subsequent large-scale commercial production of potato planting material could progressively replace the conventional tuber planting and save thousands of tonnes of "seed' tubers, which could be consumed instead of being stored. Furthermore, in 2 years, at Dalat, potato yield doubled from 9 to 18 tonnes/ha, owing to the quality of the planting material, which means that imports of European potato tubers can be avaided. Many farming families are involved in theis profitable agribusiness, while contributing to the rapid dessemination of the most appropriate potato varieties. One farming family of four can produce and sell 5,00,000-1 million potato plantlets per year [Nguyen Van Uyen, 1991, personal communication]. The objective is to raise annual potato production from 5,00,000 tonnes in 1991 to 1 million tonnes for both domestic consumption and export [commandeur and Pistorius, 1992]. The flash out system could be extended to other tuber or root crop species, such as cassava, sweet potato, and vegetables.

A cooperative research program on banana was designed by Vietnamese and French partners. The objective of this 5-year(1992-1996) research program is to provide Vietnamese producers with healthy clonal planting material, belonging to higher-yielding and more resistant banana cultivars, at a reasonable cost.

A private joint venture to set up a plant tissue culture laboratory and greenhouses for plant propagation at Thu Duc, near Ho Chi Minh City, has been established between a Taiwanese company, Pan Viet Co., and the NCSR Institute of Biotechnology. Since beginning operations in May 1991, the laboratory has produced 20,000 banana plantlets per day. The medium-term goal is to plant 20,000 ha on land leased by the company to the Government of Vietnam, to export between 800,000 and I million tonnes of bananas annually. Estimated at about 60 million dollars, the joint venture will lead to exposrts worth about 200 million dollars/yr. This kind of successful development could be extended throughout the Makong River Delta, where there is a great potential for large-scale banana plantations for export, as well as for other crop species.

Sugarcane was the first monocotyledounous crop species to be multiplied through the flash out system. In this case, the tillers are cut into theree to five portions that are used (instead of apical buds in the case of potato) to propagate the plant. The technique is used to accelerate the release of new varieties in about 2 years. For more detailed information, see Sasson [1993].

At the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Microbiology Section, Hanoi, Naguyen Kim Vu and his co-workers selected ifficient and effective strains of Rhizobium for soybean and groundnut inoculation. Field experiments carried out for several years in various regions of Vietnam have shown that inoculation with these strains could increase seed yields from 40 to 290 kg./ha. Since 1988, the same group has been testing a preparation made of Azospirillum (called azogin) in eight northern provinces of Vietnam and has demonstrated that it could replace one-third of the inorganic nitrogen fertilizer applied. At the Institute of Biology of the National Center for Scientific Research, Hanoi, blue-green algae has been under study since the early 1980s. Rice plants inoculated with Anabaena sphaerica and Nostoc muscorum result in a yield increase of 44 and 29% respectively, compared with plants that received no blue-green algal fertilizer[Commandeur and Pistorius, 1992].