It seems that South Africa will overtake Australia as the
largest producer this year. Production in Australia has plateaued for the last
few seasons and production costs continue to be a factor. The focus on R&D
to remain competitive is continuing with varieties a large part of that. The
results of the industry wide benchmarking exercise will provide further
insights into the causes of the leveling of yields although a lack of
investment in a significant hectarage of the industry by producers is seen as a
serious/causal factor.
Malawi is likely to come in as 6th largest this year, a
drop from 5th in recent years. This does not include smallholder plantings that
have yet to enter the export value chain and these will boost production going
forward. China is now producing significant nut but is struggling with
selecting superior varieties, particularly for an export market. The focus of
production is shifting to lower cost countries and hence Malawi and the rest of
eastern and southern Africa has a great future if the issues are addressed.
At the Macadamia conference in September, a paper of the
development of genetic markers will be presented by Dr Cathy Nock , co authored
by me. Unfortunately, I won't be attending.
Although this work was not directly funded by IrishAID or the Malawian
industry, we did use material from the dwarfing planting to test the system
developed by taking single leaves of open polinated seedlings back to the SCU
and testing these for parentage to find the ring ins. This program supports the selection and
breeding program for Malawi at a relatively low cost if funds are available.
With further support we hope to be able to pinpoint candidate genes for desired
characteristics including dwarfing, drought tolerance and quality paremeters and
make a breeding and selection program much more efficient.
By Dr. Wayne Hancock
