HSAD PROJECTDate Palm Tissue Culture

Component / التمر لنخيل النسيجية الزراعة محور حصاد مشروع

Dr. Saleh M. Bader &

Dr. Abdulminam H. Ali

The History of Date Palm in Iraq.• Iraq used to be the main producing and

exporting country in the world. It occupied an advanced rank in the global market for the date. But the number of palm tress declined dramatically as a result of successive conflicts in the production areas, as well as damage a large numbers of trees by disease, pests and insects. Additionally, the low prices of for dates were not commensurate with cost production.

• What is the Result??Destruction of large area of palm especially in

the southern of Iraq.Iraq slipped to seventh place in the global

ranking for date production. Nearly 23% of Iraqi population lives below the

international poverty line (many of these people live in rural areas and agriculture is their main source of income).

HSAD Goals

• Creating mother palm stations• Plantlets nurseries• Rehabilitation of Date Palm Orchards• Cultivation and production of palm plantlet

using tissue culture technique.• Rehabilitation of the Palm sector

• Staff training• Provide protocols needed for date palm propagation• Provide international experts to assist the national team. • Inclusion of the private sector labs in the project activity

What is ICARDA, HSAD assistance for develop this technology in Iraq?

What is the immediate result achieved for improve this component???

Assess existing facilities and human capacity for the commercial production of date palm tissue culture in Baghdad and Basra.

Provide a protocol for organogenesis to develop the true-to– type in vitro plants of date palm.

Develop a training plan for the Baghdad and Basra laboratories to develop the capacity for date palm tissue culture.

Develop a work plan for the commercial production of true- to– type in vitro plants of date palm.

Develop a plan for the commercialization of tissue culture derived date palm plants.

Advise on needed technical backstopping to Iraq in the production and commercialization of date palm tissue culture.

• HSAD helped Basrah Governorate equip Tissue Culture Centre

• USAID made the necessary upgrading for Basrah TC Lab to make it appropriate for Date Palm micro-propagation.

Workshops and Training Courses implemented in

this aspect

• Date Palm Culture and Biotechnology Workshop – May 12-16, 2013:

• Training for employees of the Directorate of Agriculture, private sector companies, and farmers to introduce

• the important of tissue culture technology for date palm grooves rehabilitation.

• The importance of establishment of Date Palm field gen bank under supervision of international scientific centers

• The importance of supporting the private and public tissue culture labs. And create mutual understanding atmosphere between private and public labs.

• The importance of spreading the culture of growing of Date Palm , based on the importance of the Date Palm Tree's in the Islam realign and Arab Tradition.

Training course for Al-Zafrania Lab Staff

Training course for Basrah Lab. Staff

Workshop

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for agribusiness development in Date

Palm Tissue CultureBasra, 18-19 May, 2014

What is The Aims of this workshops????? Involvement of the Date Palm tissue culture

technology in agribusiness. Highlight the Problems faced by the

commercialization work in date palm tissue culture.Importance of involving the private sector in

developing the date palm tissue culture.Quality control - factors causing variation in plant

tissue culture.The Risk of Agro-diversity Erosion.

Specific Training course for Date Palm Micropropagation via Organogenesis Follow up the work achieved in previous months and repeating the important things in protocol like (Shoot tip extract and sterilization ) Training work on tissue subculture. Showing and Explaining for the trainees the development that achieved in the explants cultured in vitro. Reviewing the protocol . Also training work on how to make stock solutions of hormone .Visiting to the URUK tissue Culture Lab in Thi-Qar City.Reviewing the final protocol (Arabic and English version) with HSAD team (Dr. Saleh and Dr. Abdul-Minam)

FINALIZED THE DATE PALM MICROPROPAGATION PROTOCOL & SUBMITTED TO THE MOA