Tamarind monograph.pdf - Crops for the Future

selected in the Philippines and Thailand and are becoming popular.
Tamarind will continue to play a role in tree improvement programmes and
sustainable development and it is important that horticultural scientists work
with those involved in rural development so that the working collections can
span all interests.
Some of the potential characters that could be used in germplasm
characterisation are listed in Table 8.1 (see plates 12-15). Studies in
Karnataka which evaluated the correlation between different attributes of
growth and fruits in 17 genotypes, and others in Thailand, are now standard
guides for evaluation (Challapilli et al., 1955; Birdar and Hanamashetti,
2001). The length of the fruit is also reported to be positively correlated with
fruit weight, pulp, and number of seeds. Fruit thickness was negatively
correlated with fibre weight, seed weight and seed number. Since fruit
length, weight and thickness are measures of fruit size, the larger the fruit,
the heavier the pulp weight (Shivanandam and Raju, 1988).
8.3 Germplasm activities in different countries
8.3.1 Thailand
In Thailand, wide genetic diversity in tamarind germplasm of both sweet and
sour types has been observed in all regions. Germplasm collecting was
undertaken in 1986 and 1987. A total of 1811 accessions were collected
during this period. Several other accessions, such as No: 86-2-23-017, No:
86-13-008 I and No: 87-2-01-035 have been selected for improvement for
industrial purposes (Feungchan et al., 1996 a). Some of the names given to
the selections relate to the district from where the clone was first selected
(e.g. Jae Hom) or the name of the grower (e.g. Muen Chong).
Fruits with red and brown coloured pulp have also been found in the
accessions from Thailand (see Plate 15). At the University of Khon Kaen,
cultivar selection is more advanced than in other countries. Several
accessions have been selected which are potentially high yielding. In
Thailand, there are more than 50 sweet tamarind cultivars under cultivation.
They include Muen Chong, Sri Tong, Nam Pleung, Jae Hom, Kun Sun, Kru
Sen, Nazi Zad and Sri Chompoo. A cultivar commonly grown and popular
with Thai farmers is Makham Waan.
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