A philosophy of breeding strategy for tropical forest trees
Abstract
Economic yields per hectare in forestry are low compared with agriculture and trees must be adapted to a far wider range of conditions. However, the area of potential production for forestry is often large and even small improvements in establishment or productivity may be very significant at the national level both in terms of social benefits and in terms of land values and the production of raw material for industry. There has, therefore, been very wide interest and participation in selective breeding of commercial forest trees in the last few decades when gains as high as 30% in value have been made in the first generation of selection. Breeding strategy, however, has not generally evolved to ensure flexibility and continued advance in future generations. This advance is dependent not only upon imaginative development of methods and materials, but also upon training and the development of skills in the human resource.
Citation
Tropical Forestry Papers No. 16. 67pp. ISBN:0 85074 034 7.