The development of the startup company Agroculture And Miguel researchers is the world's first commercial development of avocado seedlings using the vegetative propagation method in tissue cultures, which required overcoming complex technological challenges
The demand for the avocado fruit is expanding, but the nurseries in Israel and around the world are left without choice avocado seedlings due to a problematic method of multiplying seedlings. The solution was found by the start-up company AgroCultureAgrocultureFrom the Miguel Research Institute of the Galilee Development Company, which developed as a response to the shortage, a unique method for commercial and rapid production of multiplying avocado seedlings, in half the time required today (from one and a half to eight months only) that guarantees disease-free plants.
This is the first commercial development in the world of avocado seedlings using an innovative cloning method of vegetative propagation in tissue cultures, in one of the parts of the avocado plant. The revolutionary method for producing avocado seedlings will bring an economic advantage to growers and more avocados to consumers.
The avocado is a difficult plant to root
Uri Ben-Hertzel, Vice President of Business Development at the Miguel Research Institute: "The avocado is a difficult plant to root, so far there has not been a commercial system for propagating avocados in culture. The great losses caused to the avocado growers today are due to lack of uniformity and diseases in the young seedlings in the avocado orchards, which are the 'bottlenecks' of the industry. The production challenges have so far limited the expansion of the fruit growing areas, while the global demand is increasing every year! The development of the advanced growing method of the start-up company AgroCulture, established by the Miguel Research Institute, is a great success, which will cause a transformation in the value chain in the avocado industry in Israel and in the world, will increase the quality of the seedlings, their uniformity and survival throughout the first years in the plantation, and will also provide a higher profit for the farmer and flexibility in industry. The new method will allow the expansion of the avocado industry, in addition, because the cuttings in the advanced method, which are created in the tissue culture, are sterile, the plant protection regulation will now allow the export abroad of selected and healthy avocado seedlings from the nurseries in Israel, something that has not been possible until now and gives the Agroclutch company A huge relative economic advantage".
In a study led by Dr. Lior Rubinovitch, a senior researcher in North R&D at the Miguel Research Institute, together with the researchers of the start-up company AgroCulture, they managed to overcome the difficulties and developed a commercial protocol that improves the vegetative reproduction process of the seedlings through commercial tissue cultures. The company has gone through another phase and has already developed a process for the multiplication of the Schiller variety avocado seed that will be marketed mainly to growers in Israel. Today, the company is in an advanced process of producing commercial canopies, which are suitable for other regions in Israel and around the world.
Avocado seedlings consist of two types of trees
Dr. Rubinovitch, Explains: "The commercial avocado seedlings consist of two varieties of avocado. the lower part "Honest” in which the root system gives the tree resistance to soil diseases, but the fruit is inedible, therefore above theּNa" make up the 'Rider' which is the commercial variety, one of the attractive avocado varieties. Today, two main and problematic methods are used to propagate the avocado seedlings, one is based on sexual propagation, using seeds and the other is based on asexual (vegetative) propagation using double assembly. The two methods used today have major shortcomings, in the first method (cane sowing) each of the seeds has a different genetic load, which may create a lack of uniformity in the plantation. In the second method (vegetative honesty) the disadvantage is time
The long and expensive length to produce seedlings. Also, with both methods, there is a danger of exposure to pathogens, which cause high mortality rates of seedlings in the orchards after planting," says Dr. Rubinovitch and adds: "In order to overcome these difficulties, we have developed a third successful and advanced method, for multiplying avocado cultivars, using tissue culture. which shortens the duration of preparing the avocado seedlings by half of the time given today (!) and even results in genetic uniformity, promotes high reproduction and creates availability of propagation material throughout the year, free of pathogens. In the continuation of the research, it is planned to develop whole avocado seedlings in culture, which contain both the 'cana' and the 'rider,'" notes Dr. Rubinovitch.
Uri Ben-Hertzel, Vice President of Business Development at the Miguel Research Institute: "The Miguel Research Institute promotes technologies towards the market also in the configuration of an incubator, which grows companies based on technology development. AgroCulture
Operating within Miguel for about two years, has managed to produce honesty on a commercial level and we are in the process of locating strategic partners, to implement the commercial process and move to the world's leading markets. The Miguel Institute is a pioneer in this field and the modern propagation method has high potential, since avocados in the world are a growing industry with high returns per breeder, a trend that is expected to continue and brings farmers in Israel and the world to switch to avocado cultivation," Ben-Herzl also says: "The start-up company AgroCulture is an excellent example For the development of a technology that goes through an incubation process as a company in Miguel and after meeting the milestones and commercial goals, it goes to the stage of recruiting investors and strategic partners. We would definitely like to see the company remain in the northern region and create jobs, regional development and additional activity in the field of agriculture and food-tech."
Demand for avocados is soaring
The data of the Miguel Research Institute shows that around 15 million seedlings of avocado trees are planted in the world every year, this is due to the increase in demand from countries such as China and Japan, which has just signed for the first time an agreement to export avocado fruit from Israel to its territory. In 2018, the global avocado market was estimated at approximately 13 billion dollars and it is expected that by 2026 it will increase to 21.6 billion dollars. In Israel, there are about 120 thousand dunams of avocado plantations, which supply about 120 thousand tons of avocados on average per year, for export and the local market, and the planting rate is 10 thousand dunams per year.
More of the topic in Hayadan:
7 תגובות
As a former manager,
In the Volcanic Institute, in the role
The director of the laboratory for the preservation of fruits and vegetables.
Can recognize avocados
close to normal ripening,
And a fruit that will never ripen.
There are serious claims today,
About growers who, because of greed for money, pick the unripe fruit because of price
high, thereby causing
For people not to buy avocado, which is an amazing fruit
And very tasty...
Discover America!!!
In the seventies I was
Method development partner
was called at the time
"Meristematic proliferation"
That is, the root of
one cell of a plant,
under laboratory conditions
Agar medium.
And that's what they do in Ra'an
Head cultures.
so it already exists,
several decades.
Increasing the amount of food increases the amount of people in the world. An irresponsible act.
By the way, does anyone know what is happening with the vaccine that they were among the first to announce its development and also explained that they have a great relative advantage because they have already developed a vaccine for a similar strain of corona virus.
What I as a consumer would really like is the development of a fruit that changes its appearance if picked too early. Unfortunately, I stopped consuming this fruit, after being burned one too many times with an inedible avocado (surely everyone knows its stages of ripening: hard, hard, hard, rotten).
I hope the developers have given their opinion to reducing or eliminating the need for the avocado seed. And if its skin is thin and uniform in shape throughout the ripening and selling process, it can be eaten on its skin for all the benefits such a possibility provides us.
Comprehensive and good article. Kudos to the researchers and the institute for the smart and creative app.
Of course, a vegetative avocado that is obtained when it is already assembled and sterile is definitely an excellent start for the other trees that can be assembled. Obviously, the continued development of genetic improvement of both the preparation and the rider will produce super plants and help overcome the population explosion and global food consumption. One day everything will be complex and cloned - otherwise it's simply impossible.
The startup that will succeed in growing in a desert area and with brackish water irrigation - will change the face of our world forever