Genetic Improvement of Oil Palm Through Recurrent Selection

Plant breeding, particularly oil palm, takes up to 20 years per cycle for phenotypic selection which is characterized by low planting densities and longer generations. This, however, has numerous consequences such as limited breeding intensity and reduced number of generations that can be reached in between two breeding stages. In the attempt to reconcile the rapid achievement of varietal outputs and the long-term improvement of the tropical tree crops programme, the recurrent selection schemes were adopted. This paper presents an overview of recurrent selection with emphasis on modified reciprocal recurrent selection which is widely used in oil palm. Based on this background, the objectives of this breeding method were highlighted, and some achievements recorded through the method were elaborated.