Author
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HARTMAN, ROBERT - TWYFORD INTERNAL. FLORIDA |
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Zimmerman, Richard |
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Submitted to: Cell and Tissue Culture Congress Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 6/19/1998 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: Commercial micropropagation started in the U.S with orchards about 1965. The techniques used were soon adapted to many other crops, with important commercial production first occurring with foliage plants. Application to woody plants took longer, but now very significant quantities of fruit, ornamental and forest species are produced. In addition, large quantities of other important crops are being produced, e.g. potatoes, and steady expansion is occurring in the production of herbaceous perennial plants. As the advantages of micropropagated plants become evident and production efficiencies improve, posibilities develop for additional species to be propagated using this technology. The current level of output, 120 milion plants per year, will almost certainly continue to grow in the next decade. Labor remains the major cost component of production which limits the number of plant varieties which are commercially propagated. Significantly lower labor costing airlift and flooding bioreactor technologies are rapidly becoming a commercial reality. As such the numbers and kinds of plants which will be commercially micropropagated is being greatly enhanced and the need for lower value commodity crops being produced in low labor costing areas of the world is being greatly lessened. Thus international market control through intellectual property rights for proprietary crops and focusing on regional rather than international market needs for commodity crops will dominate future marketing and production issues within micropropagation |
