Research Areas

Date palm is cultivated for food, fiber, and shelter in different parts of world. Female date palm cultivation is more cost-effective than male date palm thus increase in number of female date palm per hectare will lead to increased date production and ultimately lead to a profitable business for farmers. However, seedlings produced may be either male or female, and no reproducible technique is currently available for gender determination in germinated seeds of date palm. At GBRC, we are focused on development of specific marker for sex differentiation in male and female date palms which is the current need in date palm cultivation.