Sugars, Starches, and Beverages
Cacao TARS Germplasm – High Yielding
CACAO SELECTIONS FROM THE USDA-ARS ARE NOW IN PRODUCTION AND HAVE WON INTERNATIONAL PRIZES FOR FLAVOR
Ricardo Goenaga
USDA-ARS Tropical Agriculture Research Station, 2200 P.A. Campos Ave, Suite 201, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico 00680.
Corresponding author<EMAIL_ADDRESS>OUTLINE
1. SUMMARY
Scientists at the USDA-ARS Tropical Agriculture Research Station (TARS) ran a large-scale experiment that grew more than 1320 cacao trees from five hybrid families across three different sites in Puerto Rico. Cacao with the highest yield potential were grafted to rootstocks. Evaluations of these clones identified nine individuals with exceptional productivity (more than 4x the worldwide average) that also produced high quality chocolate. These accessions were publicly released. Their availability has been a boon for the resurging commercial cacao industry in Puerto Rico.
The goals were :
- To understand the yield potential of hybrid cacao grown from seeds
- To identify and release cacao clones with high yield potential
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2. PROBLEMS ADDRESSED
Cacao yields tend to be low, with a worldwide average of about 400-500 kg/ha/yr of dry beans. Greater yield could significantly improve production efficiency and output for this highly in-demand crop, and even help restart the commercial cacao industry in Puerto Rico. Although some considered the seeds from controlled pollinations as the best means of growing highly productive trees, there was insufficient data to support this hypothesis.
3. SOLUTIONS DEVELOPED
In the 1980s, TARS scientists began a large-scale experiment growing cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) from seed produced by five controlled crosses (Irizarry and Rivera, 1998). During a period of 16 years, they evaluated 1320 of these cacao trees for productivity and found that only 2-3% were high yielding. The 40 most productive trees obtained from this experiment were then grafted onto an open-pollinated rootstock (EET-400) and evaluated in a replicated trial under full sunlight and intensive management in Corozal, Puerto Rico during 4 years of production (Irizarry and Goenaga, 2000). Of the 40 clones selected for final evaluation, only nine demonstrated superior yield when compared to either the combined mean of the five parental clones or the mean of their highest yielding parent (Goenaga et al., 2009). An evaluation of the chocolate produced from these nine selections reported diverse flavor characteristics (Goenaga et al., 2009). Subsequent research by TARS scientists has confirmed that high-yielding performance of these varieties (Goenaga et al., 2015). These clones were then accessioned and made available to cacao researchers and breeders through the National Plant Germplasm System.
Collaborators involved in developing solution:
- Ricardo Goenaga, Heber Irizarry, Brian Irish, and Edmundo Rivera, USDA Tropical Agriculture Research Station, Mayagüe