The International Coconut Genebank-South Asia and Middle East (ICG-SAME) in India hosted by ICAR-CPCRI’s Research Station at Kidu which is located in the Dakshina Kannada (DK) District of Karnataka state of India. The appraisal of the ICG-SAME conducted on 21st – 22nd May 2022. The team of the appraisal consisted under supervision of Dr. Jelfina C.Alouw, Executive Director, ICC, Mrs. Erlene C. Manohar, COGENT Coordinator, Dr. Lalith Parera, Additional Director, CRI Sri Lanka, Ms. Mridula Kottekate, Assistant Director, ICC, Mr. Vincent Johnson, Cogent Coordinator support. The others accompanied are Dr. Anita Karun, Director, CPCRI, Dr. Niral Vittal, Curator, ICG-SAME, Dr. Bart Panis, Bioversity Belgium, Dr. Quang Nguyen, Vietnam University, Dr. Cristy Cueto, PCA, Dr. Vinayaka Hegde, Head Plant Protection Division, CPCRI, Dr. Shamsuddin, Principal Scientist, CPCRI, ICC Secretariat team Mr. Alit Pirmansah and Mr. Klaudio Hosang and other staff posted in the ICG-SAME, Kidu.
The appraisal conducted was the fifth and last in series of the five ICGs located in five regions i.e., ICG-SEA-Indonesia, ICG-SAME-India, ICG-SP-PNG, ICG-AIO-Ivory Coast, and ICG-LAC-Brazil. The main objective of conducting the ICG appraisal is to assess the collections’ overall capacity and needs, including: i) hosting agreement status; ii) management effectiveness; iii) roles, services and use, and linkages with users and other stakeholders; iv) performance targets and work plans; and v) collection status within the global context.
A briefing session was organised to discuss the objective of the appraisal and the progress and activities undertaken in the genebank. Dr. Anita Karun briefed the research activities of CPCRI followed by the ICG-SAME status by Dr. Niral Vittal, Principal Scientist and curator about the Kidu centre outline presented by Dr. Diwakar, Principal Scientist, Kidu.
The appraisal team visited the germplasm collections of the centre. The research centre was established in 1972 completing 50 years and upgraded to research centre in the year 2000. Total area covered is 210 ha of which 120 ha is newly developed in which the genebank is situated. Total 45 accession are maintained in the genebank. The member countries under the region are Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Besides the genebank have collection from the countries of Indian Ocean Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles, Comoros, Reunion, and Maldives. The total collections consisting of 28% National, 46% Regional and 54% International. The activities of the genebank were explained by Dr. Niral and Dr. Diwakar. In the centre they are maintaining coconut nursery and the seedlings are sold to the needy farmers and which is one of the source of income for the centre. The centre is having two natural water resources catering the need of the water for the farm. The team also visited the hybridization laboratory and the coconut nursery. Emasculation techniques are followed in the farm for hybridization with controlled pollination. The genebank is well maintained with proper labelling and displayed blocks wise variety details in the board.
After the visit the appraisal team had a concluding meeting with the ICG-SAME curator and members and discussed the requirement of the genebank as explained by Dr. Niral. The team appreciated the activities carried out in the genebank and the maintenance of the genebank which is model for the other genebanks. Mrs. Erlene Manohar COGENT Coordinator and Mr. Vincent Johnson, Cogent Coordinator support explained the format of preparation of report which will cover the technical and economic analysis and the policy decision to be taken. Dr. Jelfina C. Alouw in her concluding remarks appreciated the ICG-SAME team for the well maintained genebank and thanked all for the continuous support to the ICC-COGENT, and she provided general technical guidance to COGENT for publishing technical guidelines for improved germplasm exchange by harmonizing the international and local regulations in individual country, strengthening the networks and data collection, management and sharing. Dr. Hebbar, Head Processing Division, CPCRI, thanked on behalf of Director CPCRI for visiting the genebank and the guidance and support to the genebank. The others attended the meeting are Dr. Lalith Parera, Ms. Mridula Kottekate, Dr. Niral Vittal, Dr. Shamsuddin and Dr. Diwakar.