Performance of 5 Deli Dura Parents in the NIFOR Oil Palm Breeding Programme

Abstract: Test cross population of Deli dura parents namely; NIFOR ex UP Malaya, NIFOR ex Serdang Avenue, Ulu Remis Deli ex Sabah, NIFOR ex Serdang Avenue x La Me and Equador Deli were evaluated for bunch yield and fruit quality characters in rainforest ecology of Nigeria. The objective of the experiment is to select new Deli dura parents for inclusion in the next cycle of NIFOR oil palm breeding programme. The results showed that the progenies from the Equador Deli parent had the highest bunch yield due to the complementation of number of harvested bunch and average bunch weight. The reverse was however, the case with the progenies from NIFOR ex UP Malaya parent despite the excellent fruit quality characters. The existence of transgressive segregants in some of the progenies is an indication that selection would be effective in the improvement of these quantitative traits. Therefore, new parents must be limited to recombination of individuals of similar mean bunch yield and fruit quality to build up favourable genes for each component.