Native Fruit Tree Improvement in Amazonia: An Overview - Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Tropics: Domestication, Utilization and Commercialization - page 105

Branco, Acre) initiated work on pineapple and peach palm, although the latter
was more for heart-of-palm than for fruit.
During the last three decades, these institutions have contributed to the
expansion of peach palm production for heart-of-palm, cupuaçu and açaí-do-
Pará, as well as the expansion of interest in camu-camu and cubiu, principally
in other parts of Brazil. The lack of greater impact is partly due to an excessive
emphasis on germplasm collections rather than progeny trials designed to meet
consumer demands as rapidly as possible (van Leeuwen et al ., 2005) and
partly to a lack of continuity in the various R&D projects. Açaí-do-Pará is a
success story, however, which will be mentioned below.
While this history was unfolding in Brazil, both Peru and Colombia also
invested in R&D on native Amazonian fruits. The San Roque Experiment
Station, Iquitos, Peru, is a part of INIA and started collecting native fruit
germplasm in 1972. Camu-camu, araçá-boi, abiu, peach palm, macambo
( Theobroma bicolor H.B.K.), cacahuillo ( Herrania nitida R.E. Schultes),
naranjo podrido ( Parahancornia peruviana Monach.), chope ( Gustavia
longifolia Poepp. ex. O. Berg), among others, were collected and characterized.
Personnel affiliated with San Roque participated in the 1983-1984 USAID-
financed prospecting for peach palm germplasm and established the two major
Peruvian collections as a result, one at San Roque and the other at Yurimaguas
(Clement and Coradin, 1988). The same period saw concentrated prospecting
of camu-camu as commercial interest expanded. In the mid-1990s, INIA invited
ICRAF to collaborate on fruit crop development and considerable innovative
R&D was initiated, including surveys of family farmer interests and consumer
preferences for native fruit (Sotelo Montes and Weber, 1997), studies of family
farmer management of fruit germplasm (Brodie et al ., 1997), and the
beginnings of several participatory improvement projects with fruit and timber
species that had been selected by family farmers (Weber et al ., 2001). The
genetic consequences of the participatory project with peach palm were
examined in terms of conservation and improvement (Cornelius et al ., 2006).
In the 1980s, the Peruvian government created the Instituto de
Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana (IIAP), and fruit crops were included
in its mandate. Their first major project was with annatto ( Bixa orellana L.), a
domesticated shrub that produces a vibrant yellow-orange to red food
colouring in the scarce pulp around the seeds. Between 1993 and 2005, the
Amazonian Cooperation Treaty financed a wide-ranging collection of fruit
species that is still being evaluated. This allowed priority-setting and interest
focused on camu-camu, meto huayo ( Caryodendron orinocense H. Karst.),
uvilla ( Pourouma cecropiifolia Mart.), aguaje ( Mauritia flexuosa L.) and
macambo (A. González, IIAP, 2006, personal communication). Today, IIAP
leads the Peruvian R&D effort on camu-camu; this project will be examined in
detail below.
Work in Colombia has also suffered from inconsistent investment, but much
has been done during the past few decades. CorpoICA is the major Colombian
agricultural research institution and has worked on peach palm and meta huayo
(called 'inchi' in Colombia), among other native fruits. The Corporación
Araracuara was created in the 1980s with international funding to work on