PBS Pollination Bags used in MPOB Demonstration
One of the highlights of the PIPOC 2011 conference was participating in the Technical Tours on Monday 14th November. We visited the Malaysia Palm Oil Board’s Kluang Research station in Johor. The action-packed agenda included learning about their collection oil palm varieties from dozens of countries around the world, their germplasm cryopreservation techniques, and their highly automated seed production facilities.
We were delighted to find on the first stage of the field tour, that there was to be a demonstration of applying pollination bags to the female inflorescence, and even more excited to learn a PBS pollination bag was being used. Each user has their own subtle variation in method of use, so it’s always interesting to observe the bags in use. Here it was fascinating to learn that a supplementary wire net was required to protect the seeds from squirrels.
We later saw pollination bags in active use on other palms within the plantation including the rigorous notes denoting the type of pollen used, dates, names of personnel etc.
It was an unexpected benefit to see a live demonstration of our bags in use, especially by such a prestigious customer. It is quite an honour to see our bags contributing to their valuable research in breeding higher yielding, more robust varieties of Oil Palm.