An early assessment of Dipterocarpus retusus progeny trial

George, M. and Singh, Ombir and Saikia, D. (2005) An early assessment of Dipterocarpus retusus progeny trial. [Conference or Proceeding]

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Abstract

Dipterocarpus retusus is an important species of raw material for plywood production in northeast India. The irregular management practices and regeneration problems resulted in the degradation of natural forest population of this species. In order to conserve the natural forest of D. retusus and to ensure the sustainable supply of raw material to the local plywood industries, there is a need to raise plantations of the improved quality seeds. To achieve the objective, Rain Forest Research Institute (RFRI), has started an improvement program for this species in 1998 and accordingly, a progeny trial of the species was established to screen out superior genotypes for further multiplication. An evaluation of this progeny trial of 17 half-sib families of D. retusus was conducted at the age of fifth year for plant height (H), diameter at breast height (DBH), clear bole height (CBH) and crown diameter (Cr. dia.). Significant variation in all progenies was observed for the traits studied. The performance of progenies viz., JKG –3, DMP-9 and JKG- 2 was found highly significant for all the traits over the check progeny. In inheritance study, heritability for height, diameter at breast height, clear bole height and crown diameter was recorded as 0.92, 0.56, 0.90 and 0.83, respectively. These results indicates that the out standing progenies can be used in recombination breeding and mass multiplication in different afforestation and reforestation programs till final results obtained. The genetic information from early testing can also be used to enhance selection efficiency at mature stage by culling inferior families.

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