Date Palm: Production
2014
Jaradat, A. A. (Abdullah A.)
The future of date palm, as a dioecious, monocot fruit tree largely depends on (1) developing advanced knowledge and information about the dynamics, management, and sustainability of the tree as a central component of the oasis agro-ecosystem, and (2) in-depth understanding of the genetic diversity of the species and its wild relatives using analytical and predictive powers of quantitative trait loci, somatic cell hybridization, and genomics to overcome some of the genetic research limitations. The bulk of future research on date palm will be carried out in Middle Eastern and North African countries where dates are an important economic commodity and the date palm is a culturally significant fruit tree. More sustainable solutions to production problems are needed in traditional oases and modern plantation ecosystems. The applied research challenge is to develop and optimize “toolbox” packages for both ecosystems, including a strong integrated pest management component. Future advances in developing date palm cultivars with high yield and better quality will depend on the identification or development of molecular and phenotypic markers that may assist in identifying economically- and agronomically-important traits and cultivars. Genes or gene complexes of potential use in meeting these future challenges may well be present in non-elite date palm cultivars or seedlings found in traditional oases but their presence and characteristics are largely unknown. Therefore, traditional farmers should be encouraged with incentives to replant orchards with locally-produced highly heterozygous and heterogeneous offshoots or seedlings.
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