Importance Of Research!
PRRI Scientists Start Study
On 'Super' Rubber Clones
Scientists from the Philippine Rubber Research Institute (PRRI) will conduct a study starting tomorrow of the selected 16-year old rubber trees in my farm which had a shown outstanding latex production.
PRRI OIC Director Girlie Saludo, said a team lead by Jess Bryan Alvareno of the Genetic Resources and Improvement Division of PRRI will lead the team of experts which will conduct the scientific research.
"Recently, we have seen a Facebook post in your page MannyPinol regarding your discovery of a 'Super' Rubber Tree Clones which exhibited promising latex yield. PRRI has on-going study entitled "Developing High Yielding Clones Through Ortet Selection" that aims to collect potential genetically diverse clones that may help in the development of new high yielding and climate resilient rubber clones," Saludo said.
Ortet Selection "consists of identifying elite trees from a large population of genetically variable seedling trees."
"We would like to gather initial morphological data and leaf sample of the identified 'super' rubber clone. The collected data and leaf samples from the ' Super clone' elite tree will help PRRI establish a baseline data for yield evaluation and DNA fingerprinting," Saludo said.
Last week, before I figured in a freak biking accident, I made rounds of a the 16- year old runner trees which were propagated from out of the a Series 2000 rubber clones brought in by a Malaysian friend when I was Governor of North Cotabato.
My rubber tapper, Jun Canon, told me that among the more than 500 trees growing in the farm, there were at least three overly prolific trees which yielded between 500 grams to 1.4 kilos of cuplumps every tapping day.
After that discovery, I decided to engage PRRI in the conduct of production validation and genetic research on the trees with the aim of sharing these clones to other rubber farmers of the country who had planted old and low yielding clonal varieties.
The low yield per hectare and the low prices of rubber cuplumps have adversely affected the livelihood of rubber farmers in the country.
Actually, my two other brothers, retired Police Col. Patricio and former Congressman Jun have also planted Series 2000 rubber clones.
Both of them also reported exemplary latex production from the trees that they planted.
I will also recommend to PRRI to conduct studies of my brothers' prolific rubber trees.
#FarmingIsAppliedScience!
#farmisthebestlaboratory!
(This video taken by my brother Jun shows one of his outstanding rubber trees in his farm which will be included in the PRRI study.)

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