Collection and Characterization of Shallot Germplasm in Effort to Support National Food Security

Abstract

Shallot is one of the important commodities in Indonesia because it's primary function as the main component of condiment almost in all dishes. It affect the demand for shallot will always exist and will rapidly increase belong to contribution of world population growth. So the increasing of shallot production should be carried out to maintain the stability of shallot suply. The increasing of shallot production can be maintained by the improvement of one or more characters of plants such as productivity, resistance to pests and diseases, and more else through plant breeding programs. The collection of genetic diversity through germplasm collection activity is the first step in the breeding programs. The collection of genetic diversity through germplasm collections could be obtained in several ways. Collection and identification process in order to shallot genetic diversity study was conducted by field exploration to several regions in Indonesia, the introduction and expansion of genetic diversity through radiation. The result of exploration and the introduction activities resulted on 79 genotypes coll ection, 35 genotypes among had been successfully characterized and testing the ability of flowering. The results showed that there was diversity within characters as well as of crown and bulbs characters and plants ability to the flowering time. Diversity was also demonstrated from the results of cluster analysis which divided the total of 35 genotypes into three major groups. In other hand, the result from genetic diversity expansion through mutations clustered a total of 55 genotypes into a group. Shallot germplasm collections were currently partially stored in the form of bulbs and some genotypes are stored in the form of botanical seeds/true shallot seed.