Plant Bioregulator Usage in Fruit Production - Some Marketplace Realities and Global Issues Affecting Future Development

摘要

The characteristics most important for commercial production of any fruit crop cultivar relate to intrinsic fruit quality and durability through the market chain. Cultivars with the right combination of these attributes can be grown profitably for many years providing we have the tools needed to overcome inevitable crop production problems. A 'tool bag' of chemical and non-chemical technologies, used strictly depending on need, continues to be a more practical approach to solving production problemsthan adopting either the traditional hybridization or modern gene transformation approaches to overcoming these problems. Furthermore, while the future availability of these chemical tools is in jeopardy in some countries because of negative public perceptions, it is important to remember that genetic engineering is currently viewed with even greater mistrust! The development of new plant bioregulators (PBRs) for use in fruit crop horticulture is these days seriously constrained by: a) the declining support within the public sector for plant growth and development research, especially research involving perennial plants; and b) decisions taken by the multinational corporations, that for decades served the 'new chemistry' needs of agriculture, to reducethe effort put to discovering and developing new PBRs. Still, there are good reasons for pomologists, plant physiologists and the agricultural chemicals industry to 'keep the faith' with respect to PBR research and development. Public attitudes will change once it becomes apparent that energy-efficient and sustainable food and fibre production systems of the future will need this knowledge and these tools. The looming food crisis on some continents and the immediate needs of millions of impoverished and malnourished people throughout the developing world are other realities that will rationalize this discussion.