Coconut is where Saraoutou began. In 1962 the French oil-crops institute IRHO set up a coconut research station on Santo's east coast, and the first work was coconut breeding and agronomy.[1]
In 1963 the Vanuatu Tall population VTT1 was collected at Surunda estate, the start of four decades of mass selection.[2]
Then came the discovery that shaped the programme. Exotic coconuts in the field gene bank succumbed to a new wilt while the local Vanuatu Tall stayed healthy. The disease was Coconut Foliar Decay Virus (CFDV), spread by the planthopper Myndus taffini, and CFDV tolerance became the core breeding criterion.[3]
By around 1985 the Saraoutou collection held 11 Tall and 13 Dwarf varieties and was described as “the richest in the Pacific”. About 60 hybrids were tested; the Vanuatu Tall × Rennell Island Tall hybrid proved the best for nuts and copra while tolerating CFDV.[4]
In the early 2000s Saraoutou was described as the second-largest coconut research facility in the world, after India's CPCRI.[5]
Achievements
Library blong VARTC
956 records in the Knowledge Hub relate to this programme. VARTC and former-name work (IRHO, IRCC, CARFV, CTRAV) is marked ★ and listed first.
CIRAD-FRA — Agritrop (Cirad)
Bourdeix, Roland; Johnson, Vincent; Pilotti, Carmel; Ellacott, William; Chant, Herenui — Ethnobotany and Economic Botany
Jean‐Pierre Labouisse; Tiata Sileye; Chantal Hamelin; Xavier Bonneau; André Rouzière — CORD
— CIRAD
Durot, Claire; Raison, Emmanuel — CIRAD
Bourdeix, Roland — s.n.
Lebot, Vincent; Komolong, Birte; Labouisse, Jean-Pierre; Lawac, Floriane; Kaoh, Juliane; Logotonu, Meleisea Waqainabete; Sukal, Amit; Grahame, Jackson — CABI Reviews
Labouisse, Jean-Pierre — Institut Agro Montpellier
Open Day with national leaders retells the station's history as once the world's second-largest coconut research facility. Board Chair Antoine Ravo: "Research is everybody's business."
Minister Nako Natuman launches the Strategic Plan 2023–27; releases include the VTT × Rennell coconut, 11 taro Fiji varieties, island taro 'Vuxtamasao' and Charolais/Brahman cattle.
More than 800,000 coconuts planted towards the one-million goal; coconut rhinoceros beetle in Santo limits seednut movement.
