Dr Dyno Keatinge, Director General, AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center

DR.  J.D.H.  KEATINGE  DIRECTOR  GENERAL  

AVRDC  -­‐  THE  WORLD  VEGETABLE  CENTER  

2008

2!

Association of International Research and Development Centers for Agriculture (AIRCA)

Coping with Increasing Climate Uncertainty: Flooding

Excess soil moisture damages tomato plants leading to dramatic loss of yield

Disease and Fruit Loss

•  Grafting: improved rootstocks to manage bacterial wilt and flooding in Solanaceous crops

BW:  Non-­‐gra7ed  vs  gra7ed  tomato  

Rubber tubing: Better for grafting than traditional clips as it falls off naturally as the plant grows

Grafted plants prove successful in Qatar!

Crop Protection from soil borne diseases through grafting Protects  a  variety  with  good  yield  and  quality  but  is  otherwise  suscepGble  to  soil-­‐borne  diseases  or  flooding  by  graIing  onto  a  rootstock  with  desirable  resistance  

Bacterial Wilt Very Severe Soil Borne Disease

Rootstock

Scion

Graft

Rubber tube

Diagonal cut

GraIing  tomato  onto  eggplant  rootstocks  using  rubber  tubing  in  Bangladesh  

SEE AVRDC on six minute Youtube film:- “How to graft tomato and eggplant: Tube splice method”

Several successful women’s grafting cooperatives trained by AVRDC in Jessore, Bangladesh

Technology well suited to the

landless poor

Grafted seedlings sell for about 5 times the price of normal seedlings and have

shown themselves to be effective against bacterial wilt in Jessore

Graft recovery chamber with high humidity

Parameter Lam Dong province

Yield (t/ha) 73 Adoption rate by tomato farmers 100% Total area under tomato production (ha, 2011) 6,388.0

Contribution of grafting ($million/yr) 9.3

Economic impact of AVRDC tomato grafting technique in Lam Dong province, Vietnam

What’s next: Can tomatoes and eggplants grow on trees? Solanum torvum (Prickly nightshade) as a new grafting

rootstock for eggplants and other Solanaceous spp.

• Highly resistant to common fungal and bacterial wilts and root knot nematodes. • Vigorous growth supports higher yield. • Drought tolerant. • Locally available root stocks (India, Thailand) • Easy to produce as root-stocks. • Perennial and supports longer duration. •  Berries already used as local vegetable in Thai Green Curry and Tamil Nadu cuisine.

AVRDC Bringing Prosperity for the Poor and Health for All