Supporting the tall demand for biofuel planting stocks in the country [Philippines]- is tissue culture the way

The escalating and very fluid price of oil and oil products have preempt the government to embark on nationwide, massive biofuel plantation development which is picked up with great hope and enthusiasm by both private corporations and individuals. The call was made with no planting stocks production system in place that the government should work aggressively to insure the production and distribution of high oil-yielding planting materials of the biofuel species will meet the demand for them. This professorial lecture addressed the need for a biofuel planting stock production system. The lecture assessed the value of tissue culture vis-a-vis other methods of propagation in insuring the availability and supply of high oil-yielding and high-performing biofuel species for the country's biofuel program. The lecture focused more on the tree species Jatropha curcas and to a certain extent Pongamia pinnata and reference to other biofuel species was made only to highlight the advantage of these species over the othe biofuel species e.g. 'food versus fuel' is a non-issue for these two species. The discussion further explained why in the Philippines and elsewhere in Asia the thrust now is to harness these two species for biodiesel production. In India, government and private institutions have produced in large quantities stocks of high-yielding varieties of biofuel species for plantation establishment only through tissue culture. The protocol for tissue culture of Jatropha and Pongamia is a product of several research activities and currently a number of protocols are employed for the propagation of planting materials. In the Philippines, tissue culture of J. curcas was initiated by the author in August 2007 that resulted to the production of multiple shoots from any tissue of the plant, the shoots were later rooted in vitro. Several plantlets are now being acclimatized for outplanting trial. Two other initiatives on the development of tissue culture of Jatropha in the country have been reported. For P. pinnata, initial results of trials of tissue culture were comparable with those reported from studies in other countries. Multiple shoots were formed in culture from cotyledonary axil. Stem tissues formed many axillary buds that appear to be amenable to plantlet development. From the results of the assessment made of tissue culture vis-a-vis other methods of propagation of the two tree species, the author proposes a planting stocks production system involving several propagation methods that can be both managed by small-scale farmers and plantation managers. The system considered the improvement of the species and the minimization of the adverse environmental impact that wide-scale planting of the species will cause. It also considered the issue that wide-scale planting of clones from tissue culture and other vegetative method can compromise the country's biodiversity conservation program, food production and forest and environmental restoration work. While the author recommends the use of tissue culture and rooting of cuttings for the production of planting stocks for plantation establishment for the purpose of biodiesel oil production, part of the production system should also use selected seeds to take care of the biodiversity aspect crucial to insuring the sustainability of the biofuel program. The production system thus requires technology for tissue culture of the species, rooting of cuttings and seed technology. Diversity is still the key to sustainability that tissue culture should only be one of the components of the system.