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8/26/2013 1

Comments pertaining to Avocado Plant Breeding Strategy 2013‐2033 DRAFT

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The purpose of this presentation

• Relate to you insights about avocado

breeding

• Provide another perspective regarding

the recommendation to “ramp down” the scion breeding program

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Why am I giving this presentation?

• I have participated with the CA avocado industry

for the last 38 years and I can bring a historical perspective to the debate on breeding.

• I have been active in the effort to develop new

varieties and rootstocks during much of this time

• I have provided in the Board packet, a collection
• f comments from international scientists which

help me substantiate my message

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WHY DO WE NEED TO CONTINUE DEVELOPING NEW ROOTSTOCKS AND VARIETIES FOR CALIFORNIA?

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The California avocado grower faces many challenges

• High cost of land
• Expensive water
• Poor quality water especially when groundwater is

used

• Wide tree spacing – necessitating tall trees to get

acceptable production

• Tall trees on hillsides are difficult to harvest
• Tall trees require experienced and expensive pickers

which are becoming a scarce commodity

• Mediocre to low production in most years
• Most important – Hass is susceptible to stress (heat,

drought, salinity) and tends to alternate bear

• Competition from imported Hass

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Rootstocks

Clonal Dusa for example is a superior rootstock

• It provides good protection against root rot
• It has reasonable tolerance to certain damaging salts and

chlorides (no data available). BUT Dusa does NOT address all of our needs in a rootstock

• high levels of salinity
• the need for smaller trees for hillside planting and easy

harvest

• water logging due to poor irrigation practices and soils

types that don’t drain well There is a need to continue the development of a well tested selection of rootstocks that are adapted to varying growing conditions

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Varieties

• The avocado is a wonderful and versatile fruit; it is great

tasting and is very nutritious, it enhances health and has medicinal applications with many yet to be discovered

• However, AVOCADO does not equal HASS, but

unfortunately Hass has evolved to become the world’s avocado industry’s single commercial variety

• The dependence on Hass has potential serious future

implications to the CA grower in maintaining a premium identity in the marketplace

• Mexico and Peru can only ship Hass into the US
• Likely same restriction will apply to South Africa and Colombia

unless a major risk assessment is conducted for other varieties

• California growers have an opportunity to differentiate

themselves by marketing

• existing varieties that few other countries can ship into the US

(i.e., New Zealand, Chile)

• unique new fruit varieties that no one else has

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AVOCADO GENETIC RESOURCES

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Why consider germplasm conservation

Tremendous diversity among avocado varieties

• Cold/heat tolerance, pest/disease tolerance, wind

tolerance, narrow/spreading trees, peel thickness and color . . . etc.

• Tree vigor and alternate bearing tendency
• Postharvest quality and ease of handling

The CA industry by virtue of its 110 year history has at UC South Coast REC in Irvine

• A large collection of diverse germplasm
• A collection of avocado relatives adding to the genetic

diversity at or disposal

This is where germplasm conservation comes in ‐ PRESERVE THE DIVERSITY FOR FUTURE USE

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“Modern” Genetic Tools and Classical Breeding

• The best deployment of genetic tools is in

conjunction with classical breeding approach

• There are tools available to ascertain the

presence/absence of traits at the seedling stage without growing the tree to maturity Successfully utilizing these genetic tools depends

• n knowledge of the genome of the species

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Avocado genome

• A Mexican criollo avocado has been sequenced –

research funded by Mexican government and APEAM; >$5 million dollars and several years

• Project completed but information not yet

released to the public domain and release not certain

• To make use of genetic tools we need to have this

information

• A consortium is being created to sequence and

assemble the genome and place in public domain

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SUMMARY OF COMMENTS RECEIVED

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Contacted several respected members of the international avocado community representing both industry and research

Industry Related Research

Andre Ernst, Allesbeste Nursery, South Africa Stefan Kohne, Westfalia Technological Services, South Africa Zelda Van Rooyen, Westfalia Technological Services, South Africa Jose Chaparro, University of Florida Inaki Hormaza, IHSM La Mayora, Spain Vered Irihimovitch, ARO, Israel Emi Lahav, ARO, Israel Uri Lavi, ARO, Israel Neena Mitter, QAAFI, Australia Fernando Pliego Alfaro, University of Malaga, Spain Alon Samach, Hebrew University, Israel 13

Regarding “ramping down” new variety development The message of the comments: If you don’t know history, your are doomed to repeat it: Don’t put all our eggs in one basket – spread the risk around

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Regarding “ramping down” new variety development

the CA avocado industry is on course to repeat the mistakes of the apple growers with Red Delicious and the citrus growers with Sunburst

• mandarin. The growers were happy with those varieties until someone
• verseas bred a better variety and theirs was obsolete. ‐ J. Chaparro

By abandoning the present scion breeding program without putting a successful alternative in place might have a serious effect on the competitiveness of the Californian Avocado industry in its own market in

• future. – A. Ernst

analysis of where the California avocado industry should be in 10‐20 years, especially in a document entitled strategy 2013‐2033. What will be its niche? Will it make sense to produce Hass or Hass‐like varieties to compete with other avocado producing countries in Central and South America with lower production costs or the future of the industry in California should be linked to develop a different variety focused on the local US market? ‐ I. Hormaza

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Regarding “ramping down” new variety development

The short term objective of diversification is good. However, it is narrow minded (short sighted) to think that the existing varieties will fulfill all the needs that will arise over time. In time, flaws will be detected in these varieties and replacement cultivars will be needed to fill the

• vacuum. These flaws can be traits that were overlooked, changes in

consumer preference, or susceptibility to new pathogen strains or insects. Regardless, it is essential that the scion breeding program be continued to provide a source of new and improved cultivars. – J. Chaparro If you don't do it someone else will, and you will lose market leadership. –

• J. Chaparro

I think that a breeding program needs to be continued but clearly it should be led by someone young with a lot of energy and ability to focus on an

• bjective and not get lost in piles of numbers. – A. Samach

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Regarding “ramping down” new variety development

“trees with characteristics of slow growth, dwarfing or fruit production off short branches would allow different planting and pruning systems to be used and will reduce labor costs for pruning and pest management thereby lowering costs and improving grove profitability.” This is highly unlikely if not impossible to achieve through the proposed CAC rootstock breeding program. – A. Ernst The importance of a breeding program which has the aim of creating new cultivars is fundamental for the industry, especially when relying on only

• ne main product. What will happen if a sudden disaster will occur

(ambrosia beetle damages for example). – V. Irihimovitch

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Regarding “ramping down” new variety development

… when looking at breeding in fruit trees this is always a long‐term shot. The seeds you plant today will provide results in about 20 years; so from a breeding perspective this doesn't make any sense because if one day you decide to resume the breeding program you should start again from

• scratch. – I. Hormaza

I don’t think the cultivar breeding program should be reduced. There is no commercial fruit type without cultivar breeding program. All the “stories” about the difficulties and long time [and money] required are

• true. – E. Lahav

This should not happen under any circumstances!!!!. The current effort

• f 1,000 ‐ 2,000 seedlings/year is the minimum size needed to allow for

selection pressure using the current breeding model. – J. Chaparro

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Regarding “ramping down” new variety development

It is nonsense to ramp down the scion breeding programme. Stopping the scion programme in a woody plant such as avocado with such a long juvenile period will take many years for recovery, in such a way that, closing it, would leave California growers out of the path for many years. The decision taken today will have implications 20‐30 years later. Avocado is an interesting crop in the sense that Hass is the dominant cultivar all around the world, however, this situation will not last forever. New cultivars, with new traits will be needed to satisfy consumers in the

• future. These new selections could be giving California growers (in 20‐30

years) an advantage in comparison to other countries with lower production costs and which do not have and are not planning to have a scion selection programme. Along this line, the availability of the avocado genome with growing information provided by new and more powerful molecular markers could considerably speed up breeding, assuring the

• utcome of interesting selections. ‐ F. Pliego Alfaro

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Overall conclusion on proposed “ramping down”

The approval by the CAC Board of the proposed plant breeding activity in its present format would have serious

• consequences. It is believed that, as the draft document

does not provide enough detail leaving too much room for speculation, the CAC Board would not be in a position to take a responsible decision in the interest of the California Avocado industry, without putting its standing as a renowned international avocado breeder at risk. – A. Ernst

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Rootstock and variety development?

….cultivars, together with the rootstock breeding program. They both must exist by their own, as they require different work strategies – V. Irihimovitch Taking into account the importance of root rot, rootstock selection for pathogen tolerance should be addressed by a plant pathologist as it has been so far. Advanced selections should be given to the scion breeder who would be in charge of screening and selecting them for salt tolerance. Hence, the scion breeder should open a new research line on rootstock breeding for salinity tolerance. At this point, the group with expertise in molecular tools could help both the pathologist and the conventional breeder, in application

• f these techniques to speed up the breeding programme.‐ F.

Pliego Alfaro

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Rootstock and variety development?

This is not overlap. What good is a rootstock that is incompatible with most scion varieties? Scion/rootstock compatibility IS AN ESSENTIAL TRAIT that needs to be evaluated in any rootstock breeding program for any crop. The product being produced is fruit not roots! Separation of the rootstock and scion breeding allows the breeders to focus on the improvement of their respective objectives, fruit quality and soil adaptation/pest resistance. – J. Chaparro

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Rootstock and variety development? – Z. Van Rooyen

the potential return on investment is greater from a rootstock breeding program vs a fruiting variety program. Regarding the former, we know our customer, and we know what the problem is. The customer is the grower who wants healthy trees that bear fruit; the problem is root rot or salinity. Unfortunately it is not easy to predict what the market will want in terms

• f fruiting variety in 20 years’ time – which is the average time needed

from first screening to commercialization. … most exporters would have us believe that there are only three important avocado varieties (namely: Hass, Hass and Hass) we hear more and more from our British clients that they want something unique that their competitors won’t have (be it green, large, small, or round). In this case the customer doesn’t care so much what the fruit looks like, but he/she wants to have a great tasting

• fruit. There is thus definitely a door open for alternative varieties to Hass

and this makes the Variety breeding program just as important as the rootstock breeding program.

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Germplasm conservation

the important factor here should be the germplasm and the plant material. Many laboratories worldwide can do genomic analyses (we do that also in my lab) but that only makes sense when you have very good phenotyping and good germplasm

• collections. – I. Hormaza

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Genetic tools and approaches – U. Lavi

First, the diagnosis: In spite of the major efforts invested in the molecular projects and in spite of the many achievements, I don’t think that there has been a major breakthrough and definitely not one that affects avocado breeding. I think that major research efforts should be invested in analyses

• f the transcriptomes of various avocado cultivars having

different phenotypes of the same trait (such as fruit size, aroma, flavor, yield storage capacity and more). I think that it is highly important to dramatically increase the genetic variation of the parents (serving either as mother parents in Ops or parents in controlled crosses). That means using not only the best cultivars as parents and also using as parents even trees from the various races. In spite of all the above, I am highly optimistic regarding the contribution of both the molecular approaches and the classical breeding to the advancement of the avocado industry.

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Genomic Approach

Perhaps it could be of interest to establish an international consortium to sequence a genome of avocado but with the commitment of making the sequences fully available. On the

• ther hand, a sequenced genome without proper phenotyping

is useless. So from my point of view, the goal would be to have a strong genomics lab at UC working closely to the groups involved in rootstock and variety breeding. – I. Hormaza

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Who should lead program

The program leader does not need to be a plant breeder as long as it is clear that THE OBJECTIVE IS THE RELEASE OF IMPROVED SCION AND ROOTSTOCK CULTIVARS. – J. Chaparro Concerning project leadership, a person with conventional breeding background and horticultural training could be the project leader, although this person should be in close contact with a group with strong background in molecular breeding

• techniques. Along this line it is necessary to take into account

that molecular data should go along with correct phenotyping and evaluation of germplasm collections. – F. Pliego Alfaro I do not think that the leader ….. should necessarily be an experienced plant breeder. Clearly a breeder should be part of the team, but the amount of breeding decisions made in a 10 year Avocado program are very little compared to a 10 year tomato breeding program. – A. Samach

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Intellectual Property

The point on the control of patent rights of the new varieties is

• interesting. Probably this is something that should be discussed

with the university in order for CAC to have a fairer share on the revenues of new varieties that can be cultivated in other countries besides the US. – I. Hormaza the evaluation of new cultivars, in the semi commercial plots, will be performed by them without having to pay the extra

• costs. In turn, all Israeli growers will be able to grow any new

cultivars without paying royalties. – V. Irihimovitch

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A historical perspective

• Review past CAS variety committee reports (available in

the CAS yearbooks posted on www.avocadosource.com

• Variety list of avocado varieties in UC South Coast REC

collection – www.ucavo.ucr.edu

• Variety database of present and past avocado varieties –

www.ucavo.ucr.edu

• Perspectives on the continued need for variety and

rootstock development from individuals such as Bob Bergh, Jack Shepherd, Hank Brokaw, Bob Platt, Avraham Ben Ya’acov posted on www.avocadosource.com If you don’t know history, you are doomed to repeat it

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I hope that before you cast your final vote you take a deep breath and contemplate the long term consequences to the future California avocado industry

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