RESEARCH ARTICLE

Journal of Oil Palm Research Vol. 5 No. 1 1993 June, p. 27-37

INDEX SELECTION UTILIZING PLOT AND FAMILY INFORMATION IN OIL PALM

SOH A C*; CHOW Chee Sing+

Received: 8 June 1992  
ABSTRACT

Index selection utilizing plot and family (full-sib and half-sib) information has been demontrated in selecting palms for cloning in a progeny-test trial on hybrids of Deli dura (D) x Dumpy-AVROS pisifera (P).

Inclusion of plot information did not significantly improve the precision or efficiency of the single trait indices for five traits; oil yield (Y), bunch number (BNo), height increment (HINC), kernel to fruit ratio (KF) and mesocarp to fruit ratio (MF); or of the multiple trait indices involving the first three traits. Inclusion of family information greatly improved the precision for the traits Y, KF and MF, which were poorly heritable but improved it to a lesser degree for the more heritable traits, BNo and HINC.

Although the inclusion of information from plot, family and correlated traits in an index would greatly improve the selection efficiency (by as much as 60%) over mass selection for Y, the expected quantum improvement was only about 13% of the trial mean.

The expected selection response from the multiple trait indices involving Y and HINC as objective traits indicated that it was possible to achieve significant reduction in height increment without sacrificing the efficiency of selection for yield in this Deli D x Dumpy-AVROS P population.

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* Applied Agricultural Research Sdn Bhd,
Locked Bag 212, Sg Buloh Post Office,
47000 Sg Buloh,
Selangor, Malaysia.

+ Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia,
P O Box 10620,
50720 Kuala Lumpur.