YIELD EVALUATION, ANTIOXIDANT ENZYME ACTIVITIES AND OIL QUALITY OF OIL PALM (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) CLONE.

ABSTRACT

Tissue culture is an important aspect in the development of the oil palm industry especially in the generation of superior and uniform oil palm planting materials. At the Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR), tissue culture work started in the late 1990s; over this period concerted efforts were made towards protocol development and optimization, explant types, revision of media component and determination of incubation conditions. By 2016 a field was setup with tissue cultured xv derived palms. However, to what extent are these clones comparative with the Extension Work Seeds (EWS) types? What is the oil quality of the clones? Are there perceived yield differences within clonal populations? Are these variations genetics? Importantly, for clonal palms to be accepted and incorporated in the Nigeria oil palm industry, NIFOR needs to have detailed information of the capacity of its clones. This is the boon of the current study. This research work was carried out at the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR), Benin City, Edo State. The one hectare (140 palms) clonal palm plantation located in NIFOR was used. The palms were numbered using durable tags, and catered for using best agronomic practices as adopted by NIFOR throughout the duration of the study. Soil analyses were carried out prior to and after fertilizer application. Weed composition and diversity within both EWS and clonal palm plantation were determined. Number of bunches and bunches weight were taken after each harvesting for a period of 24 months. Shell volume as well as fruit characteristics were determined by the assessment of displaced volume of water. Palm oil qualities of the clone compared to EWS were evaluated according to the standard methods. Results generally showed that there were at least 16 weed taxa in both clonal palm and EWS plantations. Whereas, there was a mean of 409 individual weed species per 9 square meters in the clonal palm plantation, only 365 individuals existed in the EWS plantation.