VERDANT SELECT, VERDANT V-80

AND
F1 HYBRIDS PROGRAMME

2nd August 2023

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 BACKGROUND TO VERDANT
• Dami PNG (NBPOL) has built a reputation in producing high yielding
materials and Dami seeds have been planted (trial and commercial
scale) around Indonesia.
• Verdant was established as the joint venture with NBPOL – this to enable
the distribution of Dami G2 (latest generation of Dami PNG seeds) in
Indonesia.
• Verdant gained access to Breeding and Genetic materials at Dami.
• First Seed Garden planted at Timbang Deli in 2015
• First Progeny Trial planted at Timbang Deli in 2016
• Verdant has the right to reproduce the latest Dami’s high yielding planting
material (Dami G2).
• Conventional – Verdant V-80
• SuperFamily – Verdant Select

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 Verdant V-80 vs Verdant Select

Dura X Pisifera

PROGENY DXP

PROGENY TESTING

SELECTED PROGENY

Dura Clone X Pisifera Dura X Pisifera

Verdant Select Verdant V-80

DAMI MULTI-LOCATION TRIALS IN
INDONESIA

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 HISTORY OF OIL PALM BREEDING
AT VERDANT

2013 2014 2021

Joint Venture First Breeding New development of

Establishment and Genetic next generation
Materials Breeding materials
received

2015 2016

First Seed First Progeny

Garden planted Testing planted
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TRIAL DESIGN
Plot size : 4 x 4 (16 palms/plot)

Density : 143 palms/Ha

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 MILESTONES IN PROGENY
TESTING: TRIAL 1 (Verdant Select)

2016 2017 2018 2019

Oct Planting Trial Nov Ablation 1 Feb Ablation 3 Jan First harvesting (26
18 prog + 6 SC Dec Ablation 2 Apr Ablation 4 MAP)
10.7 Ha MayAblation 5
Jun Ablation 6
Jun Ablation 7
(selective)

Bunch weight = 7.6

kg/bunch

Total Fertilizer during immature (Oct 16 – Oct 19) = 19.25 kg 7

F1 HYBRID BREEDING PROGRAMMES

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 BACKGROUN
D
18
World Palm Products (CPO + 50% PK)

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14 Physiological
yield potential
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18.5t/ha/yr
(t/ha)

10

0
1961 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 2016 2021 2026

Year
TPP = FFB tonnes x (%OER + 0.5 %KB)
Oil Palm physiological yield potential reference: Potential Productivity of Tropical Perennial Crops (Corley, 1983) 9
World palm product yield reference: http://faostat.fao.org/browse/Q/QC/E
WHAT HAVE F1 HYBRIDS ACHIEVED?

More than 600%

increment in yield
after first
introduction of F1
Hybrid corn

Historical maize grain yields for the U.S. (Bob Nielsen, Purdue Univ., 2017)
 WHAT ARE F1 HYBRID VARIETIES?

• F1 Hybrids are the progeny of two

distinctly different but genetically
pure parents.

• The progeny possess a

characteristic known as heterosis,
or hybrid vigour, which results in
dramatically higher yields.

Why have F1 Hybrids not been produced for oil palm?

 PURE LINE vs DOUBLE HAPLOID
PRODUCTION
AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJj
~1 year

ABCDEFGHIJ abcdefghij
Haploids A Haploids B

~5 years 8 generation
of selfing
AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ aabbccddeeffgghhiijj (~40 years)
Doubled Haploids A Doubled Haploids B

AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ aabbccddeeffgghhiijj
Pure Line A Pure Line B
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CURRENT COLLECTION OF PARENTAL
LINES FOR F1 HYBRID PRODUCTION
Location Duras Pisiferas
Nursery 25 6
Field 571 126
Total 596 132

78,672 possible combinations

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 BREEDING BY GENOTYPE
• Confirmation and detection of
genetically pure parental lines.
• Genetic diversity revealed.
• Future – to identify genes and
markers to allow genetic selection.

With the parental lines we already have there

are potentially over 78,000 F1 Hybrid crosses.

This has been a massive leap forward for

Verdant’s F1 Hybrid breeding programme.

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GENETIC DIVERSITY OF
PARENTAL LINES
Group Expected characters
High yielding,
A
moderate/short stature
B High yielding
C Virescent
High yielding, short
D
stature
High yielding, short
E stature, moderate to
Ganoderma.
High OB, virescent, big
F kernel, moderate to
Ganoderma.
High yielding, vigorous,
G moderate to
Ganoderma.

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 F1 HYBRID FIELD TRIALING
Number of Road map
Planting year
crosses targets
2021 31 31
2022 42 42
2023 161 161
2024 180* 138
2025 200* 170
2026 200* 191
* Projection based on crossing progress

F1 Hybrids commercially available in 2029 16

 TIME SCALE
Time scale for F1 Hybrids programme and progeny selection
Year
Activity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029
Pollen collection and crossing
Nursery stages
Field planted – immature
Immature
YR Year-1
YR Year-2
YR Year-3 (initial data) *
YR Year-4
YR Year-5 (final data)
Ready for commercial
• First yield recording will be early 2024.

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 F1 HYBRIDS – Field

31 progenies planted at Perlabian

(Oct 2021)
1st harvesting scheduled in December 2023 (26 MAP) 18
F1 HYBRIDS – Field

42 progenies planted at
Perlabian (Dec 2022).
Start producing inflorescence
6 MAP.

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