An investigation by the University of Queensland, in Australia, concluded that laboratory propagation of avocado trees does not represent a greater environmental burden than conventional methods. The study identifies orchard management, especially fertilizer use and irrigation efficiency, as the main factors determining the environmental impact of production.
Production of avocado trees through laboratory propagation techniques does not necessarily entail a greater environmental impact than traditional methods. The conclusion is from a study led by researchers at the University of Queensland, Australia, which for the first time, in an integrated manner, compared the environmental effects of clonal propagation through plant tissue culture (plant tissue culture – PTC) with those of conventional seed-based production.
Published in the scientific journal Environmental Technology and Innovation, the work analyzed the entire production cycle, from obtaining the plants to the first 30 years of orchard operation. The results contradict the idea that laboratory propagation inherently incurs higher environmental costs.
Cresha Gracy Nadar, the lead researcher for the study, explains that this newer technique does not represent greater environmental pressure when analyzed at the scale of the entire production system. Instead, it is how orchards are managed that determines most of the impacts.
“The production and application of fertilizers, as well as the electricity used for irrigation, were responsible for most system-scale impacts, regardless of the propagation method. Moreover, tissue culture propagation presented several advantages.”
Laboratory propagation enables year-round plant production
Plant tissue culture allows multiplying plants from small quantities of plant material, rapidly producing a large number of specimens with selected genetic characteristics.
This possibility is particularly relevant for perennial species, such as the avocado tree, whose conventional propagation can be slower or more difficult and depend on the seasonal availability of seeds and mother plants.
Alice Hayward, a co-author of the investigation, highlights precisely the capability of continuous multiplication of this technique.
“It allows rapidly producing large quantities of selected plant genotypes from a minimal amount of initial material, reducing dependence on seasonal seeds, mother plants, and traditional cloning methods,” she explains.
The investigation sought to evaluate whether the advantages of this technology could be accompanied by a reduction or, at least, by the absence of an increase in environmental impacts throughout the production cycle.
Fertilizers and irrigation efficiency are determinants
Sudhir Yadav, associate professor and one of the researchers involved in the work, emphasizes that the propagation method was not the main factor responsible for the environmental footprint of avocado production.
“The results show that the propagation method was not the largest environmental burden,” he says.
According to the researcher, the main opportunities for reducing the impact lie in the orchard operation phase, through optimizing fertilizer use, improving the efficiency of irrigation systems, and the gradual decarbonization of electricity production.
The use of renewable energy in laboratory propagation facilities would also help reduce the environmental impact associated with this phase. However, the effect on the system’s total global warming potential would be limited due to the environmental footprint of orchard production.
The researchers also acknowledge that the use of rootstocks produced through tissue culture could strengthen the environmental benefits of the technique, should it allow greater stability of yields compared with rootstocks derived from seeds, which exhibit greater genetic variability.
This possibility, however, still needs to be confirmed through long-term comparative field trials involving different avocado tree genotypes, which do not currently exist in sufficient numbers.
The study was developed by the University of Queensland, in collaboration with industry partners, and published in Environmental Technology and Innovation.
