1990 Supplement Publications of the International ... - IRRI books

can develop practical and efficient postharvest handling systems to
suit their particular needs. Several authors emphasize the variation
between species, and between different varieties of the same species,
in response to particular handling procedures. Some varieties,
for example, may respond well to cold storage or heat treatment,
while fruit of very similar varieties may be ruined by exactly the same
treatment. Of course this does not mean that successful technology
cannot be transferred to new species, but it does mean that careful
testing is needed.
Fruit production isalready making a substantial contributionto the incomes
of millions of small-scale farmers in the Asian and Pacific
region, and the future outlook is very promising. Given the difficulty
of efficient postharvest handling procedures on small farms in the
tropics and subtropics, especially when these are widely scattered
and lie a long way from markets and ports, it is encouraging that there
has been so much successful research and development in recent
years. We hope that his book will be helpful to all those who are
working to improve the market quality of fruit harvested in the Asian
and Pacific region.
Food and Fertilizer Technology Center for the Asian and Pacific
Region
The Use of Cell and Tissue Culture for Field Crop
Improvement
1988. 149 pp. 19 x 26 cm. Paperback. ISSN 0253-9619. Price (inci.
airmail postage) US $10.00.
The use of cell and tissue culture for the identification and selection
of useful variants at a cellular level has become one of the most
powerful tools in modern plant breeding. Already some varieties and
lines of major food crops which have been bred using these techniques
are being released to farmers. This book is the Proceedings
of the international seminar "Cell and Tissue Culture in Field Crop
Improvement", sponsored by our center, and by the National Institute
of Agrobiological Resources and the Food and Agriculture Research
and Development Association of Japan.
The breeding of improved varieties is one of the most effective ways
to help the small-scale farmer achieve higher and more stable yields.
Not only do improved varieties make more efficient use of soil
nutrients, they are often more resistant to disease, and give effective
disease control without any increase in inputs such as chemical
pesticides. Cell and tissue culture is likely to prove of great benefit,
therefore, to farmers who cannot afford heavy investment into farm
inputs, and who must make intensive use of a small area of land. The
papers in this Proceedings bring together recent research by tissue
culture specialist from the Asian and Pacific region and the United
330 CENTER PUBLICATIONS