Agriculture and food

In Thailand, marker-assisted selection has been used in breeding programs for tomatoes, to select for plants showing resistance to bacterial wilt as well as nematode, tobacco mosaic virus, fusarium race 2, late blight and powdery mildew. Resistant lines are currently being evaluated in multi-location fields by private companies.

Downy mildew is one of the most destructive diseases found in maize in Thailand. Researchers have been using molecular techniques, such as Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR), to define marker positions that link to the QTLs of the disease, which are then used in marker-assisted selection. Eight novel QTLs for resistance have been found.

The seed industry is considered to be an essential driving force in the modernization of Thailand’s agriculture sector and modernization is focused on greater value creation of existing agricultural commodities, where Thailand is already a world leader in production. Due to a favorable climate and fertile farmland, Thailand is currently the seed production and manufacturing base for many international seed conglomerates. In 2006, there were over 100 local and foreign seed companies in operation, employing more than 28,000 families and contributing over US$420 million (not including local demand of over US$300 million) to the Thai economy.

An early application of this technique in Thailand’s agricultural scene was the development of transgenic tomato plants resistant to the tomato yellow leaf curl virus. BIOTEC’s Plant Genetic Engineering Unit at Kasetsart University has successfully created tomato plants that carry the coat protein gene of the tomato yellow leaf curl virus, to help control this economically-damaging viral disease.

The same approach was taken to develop transgenic papaya and pepper that are resistant to the papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) and transgenic chili that is resistant to the vein-banding mottle virus.

Cassava is one of the most important commercial crops in Thailand. It is exported mainly to Europe in the form of chips for animal feed. The starch produced from cassava has wider utilization in both food and non-food applications. Industrial utilization of cassava starch has now expanded from being primarily used in paper, textile and plywood industries to the production of biofuel and biodegradable polymers. There are currently over 70 factories producing around 2 million tons of starch per annum. For the domestic market, the largest proportions of native starch go to the industrial production of food flavor enhancers, such as monosodium glutamate, lactic acid and amino acid production for feed supplement, such as lysine.