French Polynesia - New Caledonia
Country information
French Polynesia, Mayotte and New Caledonia are French overseas territories
GenebankNo coconut genebank in French overseas territories, although some coconut varieties are conserved in seed gardens located in French Polynesia, Mayotte, New Caledonia, Guadeloupe and Guyane. A new project is starting in French Polynesia in order to create a new coconut genebank located on numerous small islands.
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ContactDr Roland Bourdeix & |
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New Caledonia Tall (NCT)
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Although coconut palms are not growing naturally on the French mainland, France has been involved in coconut research for more than 60 years. The numerous coconut germplasm collected by French researchers, both in French territories and in the rest of the world, has been given to the International Genebank for Africa and Indian Ocean in Côte d’Ivoire (Bourdeix et al. 2005).
French tropical agricultural research was born over a hundred years ago, and really took off once the importance for the national economy of expanding tropical agriculture was acknowledged, some time during the second half of the 20th century.
The Institut de recherches pour les huiles et oléagineux (IRHO) was founded in 1941 to cover all the oilseed commodity chains, from planting to processing. IRHO worked on Coconut research in numerous African countries, but also in Asia, Polynesia and South America. In 1958, nine tropical agricultural research institutes, including IRHO, were brought together under an umbrella committee, the Comité de liaison des organismes de recherches agricoles spécialisés outre-mer. The creation of the Groupement d’étude et de recherche pour le développement de l’agronomie tropicale (GERDAT), an economic interests group, marked a turning point in their relations.
They were finally grouped together under the CIRAD umbrella in 1984 to form a public-sector industrial and commercial enterprise (EPIC). CIRAD is a French public establishment, placed under the joint authority of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. It is a cooperative
research centre specializing in tropical and mediterranean agriculture. CIRAD has a staff of 1800, including 800 researchers. It works with more than 90 countries worldwide, and has regional scientific platforms in the French overseas regions.
More info: 
Conserved coconut germplasm from French Polynesia, Mayotte and New Caledonia (2.9MB), Part 2 (2.8MB), Part 3 (1.8MB), Part 4 (1.8MB),
