Tomorrow’s Trees, Today: Adapting To Now, But Cultivating The Future

INTRODUCTION
EUCALYPT breeding began in earnest in the 1970s, with intentional selection and the formation of breeding populations of Eucalyptus grandis, which remains a flagship species of the South African Forestry Sector. In subsequent years, numerous other Eucalyptus and Corymbia species have been introduced, tested and commercially deployed to fit environmental and market niches. This has led to many species being managed in breeding programmes and even more when including those used in interspecific hybrids. In the past, this has meant that, especially in times of resource constraints, focus has constantly shifted between species, which can be disruptive when breeding cycles are often longer than a decade and led to the stagnation of many important species. To address these challenges, the ICFR together with the funders of the tree breeding programme (NCT and TWK) have developed a long-term tree improvement research strategy, that is extremely resource efficient, by splitting the work into three streams:

• Conservation: The ICFR is responsible for the stewardship of many diverse species. Many of these species are of limited commercial interest but serve as an important store genetic material for risk mitigation or new markets. As such, we conserve the germplasm as seed in our long-term seed storage facility or trees in our high diversity breeding archives.
• Advanced Generation Breeding: We have a dozen high priority species that are either widely planted or used in hybrid development. Each of these species have tailored, but simplified breeding strategies to ensure we can consistently turnover generations and deliver yield gains to the Industry. Seed sales also generate the financial support necessary for our tree improvement initiatives.
•  Hybrid development: Our programme develops numerous conventional and novel interspecific hybrids for the Industry. We work with NCT and TWK to identify promising genotypes from field trials, after which the Hybrid Clone Consortium (HCC) puts in considerable effort to clonally propagate the material, test it in clonal trials and the winners are commercialised (see Dr Noxolo Ndlovu’s Opinion Piece).

MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS TO DATE

The recent introduction to the market of advanced selected seed from our 4th generation E. grandis seed orchard and we are just a few years away from being to supply the next generation seed with further improvements in yield and solid wood properties. Our seed has also been well received by international markets, with significant interest from Europe, South America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Despite being relatively new to hybrid development, several new clones have been commercialised by the HCC.

“Despite being relatively new to hybrid development, several new clones have been commercialised by the HCC”

CURRENT OBJECTIVES AND POTENTIAL BENEFITS

The objectives of our programme are tightly aligned to benefit the Industry. Over the last four decades the ICFR has introduced and improved species, significantly increasing plantation yields. Simultaneously, the ICFR’s investment in researcher development and conserving eucalypt genetic resources continues to contribute to the Sector. While we will still aim to improve plantation yields, we are also increasingly focused on improving quality. We believe that providing our clients with high yielding and versatile genetics, will allow them to have more flexibility in the market.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

If we’re able to maintain the curent momentum, we will be able to advance all our high priority breeding populations by a generation within the next 10 years. Our breeding strategies are simple, but very intensive, prioritising shortening the time to deployment and maximising yield gains. With our high species diversity expected to help offset the trade-off between yield improvements and genetic diversity.

CREATING ADDITIONAL CAPACITY

Technology is allowing us to do more with less. Because of the long lead times, sometimes decades between generations, tree breeding is highly dependent on good data management. Locally developed software suites such as Treeplasm allow us to manage our genetic resources, while inhouse technologies allow us to improve our workflow. We’ve also recently piloted using drone based remote sensing in some of our trials, but it is still in the exploratory phase. While technology has improved efficiencies in the programme, we will always be reliant on boots on the ground.

SEEING THE BENEFITS BEING REALISED

What excites our tree improvement team at the ICFR is the real tangible improvement we make in the Industry. Because our research outputs are mainly germplasm (either seeds or clones), we get to see the benefits of the work we do. We’re particularly pleased when we get direct feedback from farmers on the performance of our germplasm.

CONSISTENCY IS KEY

The main challenge we face is consistency. While markets and risks change rapidly, we must maintain balance in adapting to changes without losing focus on our long-term goals.

“Our breeding strategies are simple, but very intensive, prioritising shortening the time to deployment and maximising yield gains”

Written By: Mr Nuveshen Naidoo (Senior Scientist: Eucalypt Tree Improvement, ICFR)

Source: Tip-Mag

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