Wild and Advanced Resources of Elaeis guineensis and Elaeis oleifera

The crucial role of genetic resources in agriculture cannot be taken lightly. These resources are required by plant breeders to improve and develop new crop varieties. Most plant commodities including modern varieties descended from an array of wild and improved genetic resources from around the world. Moreover, agricultural production depends on continuing infusions of genetic resources for yield stability and growth. In oil palm, the incipience of the wild resource in Elaeis guineensis was from West and Central Africa; meanwhile, the other species (Elaeis oleifera) was from America before these two species spread out globally and became important industrial crop. The breeding and genetic improvement work for oil palm began in the 1920s in Africa and later in Southeast Asia followed with the development of advanced cultivars of the crop from few ancestral palms. A significant improvement has been made from one generation to the next. However, as the crop improved, genetic diversity was reduced, and this restricted the ability to increase its productivity as well as selection progress further. The awareness of the depleting and narrowness of oil palm genetic diversity has become the impetus for the oil palm germplasm collection programme. Exploration of the oil palm genetic resources has been carried out by various countries to their centres of origin in Africa and Latin America. The primary purpose was to increase the genetic diversity for yield progress. The germplasm which possesses high levels of genetic diversity were collected, evaluated for valuable traits, utilized, conserved and acted as a reservoir of genetic diversity for future use. Utilization of both wild and advanced oil palm materials has expanded through various ways, which increases the potential benefits for crop improvement.