Cambodia Confronts Citrus Greening Threat through Improved Technical Capacity
The group first visited the Phytopathology Laboratory of Cambodia's Royal University of Agriculture (RUA) established through a series of technical and financial support and instrument donation under the project. The facility is expected to intensify RUA's research capacity to fight the devastating citrus greening (Huanglongbing or HLB) and other citrus virus diseases and to train young scientists in the areas of disease indexing, production of virus-free nursery foundation, and healthy management to prevent re-infection. RUA has also completed construction of a net-house for virus-free repository and disease-free nursery production. Under the coordination and expertise of Dr. Hong-Ji Su, trainings on shoot-tip micro-grafting technology for virus-free germplasm foundation and propagation/cultivation of disease-free seedlings were also conducted during the three-year project implementation.
The team also visited a field demonstration of pathogen-free (PF) citrus seedlings being managed by RUA in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture of Cambodia. The field demonstration is envisioned to promote the use of PF-seedlings among farmers and growers by showcasing the superiority of such planting materials in terms of fruit quality and yield.
HLB and other virus diseases such as citrus tristeza closterovirus (CTV), citrus tatter leaf cappillovirus (CTLV) and citrus exocortis viroid (CEVd) have been causing considerable damage to fruit yield and quality, and have become serious constraints for the citrus industry in the Asian region in recent decades. These systemic diseases can only be effectively controlled by integrated measures of disease management such as establishment of virus-free citrus cultivar repository, precise and rapid disease indexing techniques, establishment of shoot-tip micrografting technique for obtaining pathogen-free germplasm foundation, and healthy management for preventing reinfection of PF trees in the field through IPM of vector insects. These integrated techniques have been well-developed and adopted for the improvement and development of the citrus industry in Taiwan. Hence, citrus growing countries in Asia, such as Cambodia, look forward to Taiwan's technological support to prevent growers' losses due to citrus greening and other virus diseases.
Index of Images
Figure 1 Below: Mr. Vung Setha of RUA gives an orientation-briefing of the new RUA citrus net-house to FFTC Director Dr. Jen-Chyuan Lee, Dr. Hong-Ji Su and Dr. Fu-Hsiung Lin (from right to left). Right: Visit to the RUA Phytopathology Laboratory established through the project's technical and financial support.
Figure 2 Field demonstration of PF citrus seedlings being managed by RUA in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture of Cambodia.
