A new variety is gradually but consistently changing the country's coconut landscape.

It's called PCA Syn Var 001, which stands for Philippine Coconut awarded research project titled "Development of Synthetic Variety of Coconut: PCA Syn Var 001," acclaimed as the first of its kind in the world.

The research is being implemented by a team of the PCA-Zamboanga Research Center (ZRC) in Zamboanga City, composed of Ramon Rivera, Gerardo Santos, Susan Rivera, Ernesto Emmanuel, sand Gerardo Baylon.

A report on the project won the National Best R&D Paper (applied research technology generation category) at the 2005 National Agriculture and Fisheries R&D Week (Oct. 4-7) organized by the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR) in Diliman, Quezon City.

It also won the first prize at the 2005 National Symposium on Agriculture and Resources Research and Development (NSARRD) held in Los Baños, Laguna, last Nov. 9 in observance of the 33rd anniversary of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).

Santos, PCA-ZRC department manager, earlier in 2003 won the prestigious "Pantas" (sage) award conferred by PCARRD for his pioneering work on the development of the world's first synthetic coconut variety.

PCA started working on Syn Var, also known as Genetically Multi-Ancestored Composite Farmers' Variety Hybrid (GMA FV), in 1979.

Launched in March 2001, the variety has an average yield of three to four tons per hectare (the national average is 2.3 t/ha).

Based on research for a quarter of a century, the recommended Syn Var hybrids are early flowering, high-yielding, resistant to major coconut diseases, and adaptable to adverse environmental conditions.

Ramon Rivera, in his presentation at the DA-BAR-sponsored Agriculture and Fisheries R&D Week symposium, reported:

"With some modifications in the classical beeding method, a scheme was formulated to produce the base population of a synthetic coconut variety using single crosses from six tall coconut cultivars, four local and two foreign tall varieties, which were found to possess good general combining ability."

The first generation (F1) base populations were planted in September 1992. To date, 192,929 Syn Var 001 seednuts and seedlings have been distributed nationwide for regional planting and for the establishment of coconut seed farms.