Difficult to buy the original copyright

Since the 2000s, Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee has identified in vitro tissue culture technology as the most important factor in serving high-tech agricultural production. Up to now, this locality has about 56 organisations and facilities applying tissue culture. They contributed to modernisation in the production of vegetables and flowers in the province.

Ha Ngoc Chien, Director of Lam Dong Plant Protection and Cultivation Sub-Department, said that over the past time, tissue culture production organisations and facilities in the province have produced 72.3 million seedlings. Of these, about 33.4 million seedlings are for export, the rest for domestic production. Particularly in 2020, with 29 establishments specializing in flower nurseries, more than 1 billion flower seedlings have been supplied for production on an area of ​​9,300 hectares of flowers.

In Lam Dong, the number of in vitro seedlings for export is mainly produced by Da Lat Flower Forest Biotechnology Joint Stock Company, Cao Nguyen Seedling Joint Stock Company (HIVICO), F1 Biotechnology Co., Ltd and Quang Nguyen Da Lat Ltd Company.

Chien said that until now, most businesses and establishments were not able to buy copyrights of original varieties. They usually select mother plants through trial production in the field.

Accordingly, establishments take imported varieties or domestic varieties which are used in the field, then evaluate the varieties, select and bring them back to the breeding garden. These plants are then monitored for the next 2-3 seasons. If they ensure stable growth, good disease resistance, and 100% color, they will become mother plants.

In Lam Dong, the selection of mother plants is mainly carried out by centers, institutes, large-scale schools and several enterprises with high investment capital. Small production facilities just used available plants grown in the garden.

This way of selection is one of the factors that seriously affects seed quality, especially the problem of pest management in the field.

In addition to the difficulty of buying the original seed copyright, the investment in facilities in small establishments is still modest and inconsistent. Especially, the isolation space between the transplant room and the tissue culture room has not been built and applied according to the correct process, mainly based on experience. Human resources for in vitro production in enterprises and establishments are often insufficient in terms of quality and numbers.

More investment needed for labs

According to the Sub-Department of Cultivation and Plant Protection of Lam Dong province, in vitro seed technology is essential for the development of the local horticulture industry. Therefore, institutes and schools need to develop a process to select mother plants to ensure the correct variety, disease-freeness, and genetic and morphological stability.

This seedling source will then be transferred to production tissue culture facilities. In addition, institutes and schools also need to strengthen training for tissue culture facilities in the province. 

To have well-controlled and effective production of tissue culture seeds, the Lam Dong Plant Protection and Cultivation Sub-Department also recommends enterprises supply inputs, equipment and materials in culture models.

According to Chien, now laboratories in the province need to have their scale and technology upgraded to meet the increasing standards of the market, especially for export. 

In Lam Dong, there is no policy on converting agricultural land to specialized land for the construction of Labs. Therefore, it is necessary to have specific policies for this category so that enterprises can actively reinvest and improve production capacity.

In addition, tissue culture businesses also need to pay attention and invest in purchasing copyrights of original varieties, mother plants and preserving genetic resources to improve efficiency in tissue culture.

Lam Dong province currently has 29/56 tissue culture production and business establishments which built all three required rooms including environment preparation room, sterile culture room, and culture room to ensure that plants are not contaminated with microorganisms before planting. 

There are 8 establishments belonging to large institutes, schools and enterprises with tissue culture rooms designed and built according to specifications and locations suitable for business conditions to control tissue culture seedlings.

There are 27/56 facilities with only 1 to 4 transplant boxes and often take advantage of the family's facilities and materials to form a tissue culture room. Therefore, the small area has led to the isolation between the rooms is not guaranteed, especially when controlling the conditions of temperature, humidity, light, the air filtration system of the culture room is not installed, which could affect the limitation of pathogens for tissue plants.

Translated by Hien Anh