In Vitro Production of Clean Planting Material: Setting the Timelines for an Efficient Seed System for Vegetatively Propagated Crops in Ghana

Quain, M. D.; Appiah-Kubi, D.; Adu-Gyamfi, M. O.; Aboagye, A. A.; Osei-Diko, G.; Amankwah, V. A.; Prempeh, R. N. A.

2018

English

In vitro propagation provides the required micro-climate critical for growth and development of plants. It is used to rapidly multiply vegetatively propagated crops such as yam, cassava, cocoyam, taro and sweet potato. Conventional vegetative propagation has limitations when large numbers of “clean” disease-free planting materials are required. This is because vegetative propagules usually habour disease pathogens namely fungi, bacteria, and viruses from the previous growing season, and the multiplication rates are low, unlike in grains and cereals. Meristem culture in vitro technique coupled with thermotherapy, chemotherapy and cryotherapy, are techniques routinely used to eliminate such pathogens from plant tissues. This results in the production of “clean” disease-free planting materials. This study used meristem and thermotherapy systems where applicable to produce clean planting materials of sweet potato, cassava and yam. Molecular diagnostics and enzymelinked immune sorbent assay (ELISA) based methods were used to index cleaned cultures to certify that the germplasm is clean. Results from this study have indicated that it takes up to 12, 18, and 24 months to generate clean planting materials of cassava, sweet potato and yam respectively. Similar systems are being investigated for taro and cocoyam and preliminary results indicate it takes up to six months to generate clean planting material. This paper reports the detailed timelines in the production of clean planting material using tissue culture techniques up to the time of certification. This information generated is very paramount for a sustainable pre-basic seed production of root and tuber crops in West Africa, particularly Ghana.

Quain, M. D., Appiah-Kubi, D., Adu-Gyamfi, M. O., Aboagye, A. A., Osei-Diko, G., Amakwaah, V. A., & Prempeh, R. N. A. (2018). In Vitro Production of Clean Planting Material: Setting the Timelines for an Efficient Seed System for Vegetatively Propagated Crops in Ghana. Agricultural and Food Science Journal of Ghana, 11, 977-985.