The Tea Research Foundation of Central Africa No.

149: August 2008

trfca News

Providing excellence in scientific research and technology to the tea industry in southern
Africa

In this Issue

1. Vision

2. Mission

3. Comments from the Director A S Kumwenda

4. Environmental and agronomic effects on yields within and between estates in

Malawi and Zimbabwe by G M Madamombe

5. Re-establishment of biclonal seed production by H E Nyirenda

6. New cultivar pre–releases by H E Nyirenda

1
Vision: All of the Tea Research Foundation of Central Africa activities are focussed on the
development of a sustainable, prosperous and ethical tea industry

Mission: The Tea Research Foundation of Central Africa is the service provider of scientific research
and technology to the tea industry in southern Africa by developing new high yielding, good quality
and globally competitive tea together with cost effective production and management techniques in
the field and factory, disseminating these technologies through extension and training. All activities are
conducted in an ethical, sustainable and environmentally sensitive manner leading to improvement in
the livelihoods of the rural communities in the tea growing area of southern Africa.

1
Preface
The Newsletter of Tea Research Foundation of Central is a popular link between the Foundation and the
stakeholders. It is supposed to be publicized twice a year. In practice, it has however, been published
annually because of low staff members. Because of this, there are few articles to publish at any particular
time.

Newsletter Number 149 is therefore published over a year after publishing Newsletter 148. The
Foundation should and will try to publish the Newsletter biannually.

Articles included in this issue are on plant breeding and productivity of estates. The article on productivity
highlights some of the environmental factors and cultural practices responsible for variation in made tea
yield among estates, and factors that directly influence tea yields. Using these factors that were recorded
through a survey, a yield production model has been developed which growers can use to approximate
yields from their estate fields.

The article on plant breeding is about screening tea cultivars for drought tolerance. It emphasises the
importance of rooting depth of seedling and clonal cultivars, and compare the two types of cultivars. The
data from the study emphasizes that age of the tea bushes of either type may have more influence on the
cultivar plant response to drought than the rooting depth of the cultivar type per se.

To emphasise the importance of Tea Research Foundation of Central Africa networking with other tea
research organisations, the Chair of the Board visited Sri Lanka Tea Research Institute in Sri Lanka, the
United Planters' Association of Southern India Tea Research Institute and Tocklai Tea Research
Association in India in January 2009. He discussed with these institutes opportunities for the
Foundation’s scientists training in India, possible staff attachments from them and other networking
issues. The Director of Tocklai Tea Research Association, Dr Hazarika, visited Tea Research Foundation
Of Central Africa, reviewed some of its activities of and made specific recommendations, agreed to the a
formal Memorandum of Understanding with Tocklai and attachments of their scientist to Tea Research
Foundation Of Central Africa and vice versa.

To strengthen the collaboration between the Tea Research Foundation of Central Africa and the Tea
Research Institute of Tanzania (TRIT, the Director attended TRIT’s field day, a scientific conference, and
a Technical Advisory panel meeting) in November 2009. TRIT appreciated highly the presence of
TRFCA at the field day and there were agreements to strengthen such exchange visits and other
collaborative activities.

TRFCA believes the few articles in this issue will be of use to the industry. All stakeholders are
encouraged to send to the Director comments on any issues raised by authors of the articles in this issue.

Austin Suzgo Kumwenda, PhD.

Director
2
Effects of environmental and agronomic factors on yields within and between estates in Malawi and
Zimbabwe

Madamombe GM, Dr Nyirenda HE and Chasekwa B

Introduction
Low tea yields at tea estates are a major problem in Zimbabwe and Malawi. They vary between and
within estates and countries, respectively. In both countries, yields range from 2 000 to 3 000 kg made tea
per ha in both countries. Martin (1998) reported (that) that there are no major differences between the tea
planted in different estates and countries. However, Tanganda Stat-pack (2004/5) has reported a yield
range of 5 000 to 7000 kg made tea per ha (that) within estates of Tanganda tea company. Some estates
have reported yields as low 3 000 kg made tea ha-1 (Tanganda Stat-pack 2008). Differences in cultural
and management practices between and within estates, and also within the out - grower sector, could
cause these yield differences. This formed the basis of this project, to answer the question why there are
(of) differences in yield among estates, even those sharing environmental conditions.

Materials and Methods

A questionnaire was administered at nearly all tea estates in Zimbabwe to collect several environmental
and cultural practices data. The data included annual yields, ambient temperature, rainfall, relative
humidity, field history, tea types grown, area planted to tea, age of the tea bushes, plants per hectare,
applied nitrogen; plucking method; number of years after pruning; minimum and maximum temperature
and mean monthly heat units.

To determine variation in yield between and within estates, between tea types and plucking method, the
SPSS version 13.0 and STATA version 10 statistical packages were used. To determine relationship
between average annual yield and the other data variables such as ambient temperature, rainfall, relative
humidity, field history, tea types grown, area planted to tea, age of the tea bushes, plant per hectare,
applied nitrogen; plucking method; number of years after pruning; minimum and maximum temperature
and mean monthly heat units, a multivariate stepwise regression analysis was used. In this analysis, data
variables were entered and retained in the regression model only if significant at α=0.20 and P=0.05. Any
variable that was on its own significant at 0.05 level was entered into the multivariate model but retained
only if it was significant at α=0.20 level in the final model.

Results
Figure 1 shows the average yields per hectare for all the seasons that was available at each estate. Intra –
estate yield variability is shown by the wide range of means from 939.0 kg ha1 to 5 799 kg ha1 (Fig 7) as
well as the pooled standard deviation of 1909.7 and the inter-estate variability by yield means.

The results show that the lowest yielding estates were Eastern Highlands Plantation (North and South),
Clearwater and Enhoek. The highest yielding estates were Zona, Jersey and Ratelshoek. Within estates

3
yield variability (Figure 1) shows that, Enhoek and Eastern Highland Plantations Limited (North and
South) had the least variation while Southdown and Ratelshoek estates had the highest.

This within estates variability in yield could be attributed to the size of the estates. Enhoek is one of the
smallest estates in Zimbabwe similar to the two divisions of the Eastern Highlands. Southdown and
Ratelshoek are big estates adjacent to each other and share environmental conditions. It was not
surprising that the small estates had lower variability in yield than the large estates. For the latter, several
fields may differ in soil fertility, structure and other environmental factors, which caused the high within
estate variability. For the former estate, the variability in soil types and fertility was low, as would be
expected.

Because Ratelshoek and Southdown estates are adjacent to each other and share the environmental
conditions, they had similar variation in yields between fields. Irrespective of sharing the environmental
conditions, probably management practices differed. For this reason, yield levels significantly differed
between the two, with Tanganda estate having higher yields than Southdown.

Fig. 1: Yield of tea for the different estates in

Zimbabwe

7000.00

6000.00

5000.00
Mean Totyld

4000.00

3000.00

2000.00

1000.00

0.00
Clearwater EHPL North EHPL South EHPL South Enhoek Jersey Ratelshoek Roscommo Southdown Zona
Mruwa n

Estate
Error bars: +/- 2.00 SE

When estate yields were pooled over tea types, there were no significant (P=5%) difference between the
two types (Table 1). This result may partly explain why some growers are still growing seedling tea.
After all, seedling tea has sustained the tea companies for a long time and has its own benefits, which
growers like. Although the questionnaire data shows there were no significant differences in yield
4
between the seedling and the vegetatively propagated (VP) cultivar tea, several experiments have shown it
is higher yielding and is the reason for most estates replanting seedling tea with the cultivar tea.

Table 1: Average annual yield (kg/ha) by Type of Tea

Cultivar type Average yield SD±
Clonal 4088 2110.91
Seedling 3452 1811.92
Mean 3624

The variation in yield due to methods of plucking in Table 2 shows that highest yields were achieved if
shears, machine and hand plucking were used alone. Hand plucking produced the highest yield (4 149.9
kg ha1) followed by shears although not significantly different from machines (3 402.5 kg ha1).
Integrating hand and shear, and, hand and machine plucking reduced yield, with the least yields from
hand/shears combination. Table 2 further shows yield variation in hand/shears, and, hand/machine
plucking combination treatments was significantly( and) lower than in hand plucking alone treatments
((Table 2)).

Table 2: Average annual yield (kg/ha) by plucking method

Plucking method Mean Yield SD±

Hand plucking 4149 1955.5
Hand/machine plucking 2633 1292.9
Hand/shear plucking 694 220.0
Machine plucking 3402 14.7.1
Shear plucking 3415 1558.5
Mean 3689

The regression analysis of variance is shown in Table 3. The model from the analysis was highly
significant (P<0.000) (Table 3).

Table 3: Yield Prediction Model Analysis

Source SS Df MS F- P> Sq R2 Adjusted

ratio Root R2
MSE
Model 445076638 12 37089719.8 47.41 0.000 0.76 0.74
Residual 142389713 182 782361.1 884.51
Total 587466351 194 3028177.1

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Table 4 shows the multivariate regression analysis on yield of altitude, tea type (i.e. VP cultivar/seedling),
age of the tea, plant population/hectare, hectares under tea, nitrogen applied/ha, plucking method, years
after down pruning, average minimum temperature average maximum temperature and average monthly
total heat units. The model was significant at P=5%.

Average minimum temperature was excluded from the regression analysis because, in relation to other
factors, it did not significantly affect yield (p>0.20) suggesting it was of lesser importance in the
regression model.

Table 5: Multiple regression analysis for total yield kg ha -1 for 195 data units

Total yield Coefficien Standar T P>|t| [95%ConfInterval

Plant -0.24 0.03 - 0.000 -0.30 - 0.18
Altitude -6.44 0.99 - 0.000 -8.40 -
Nitrogen 11.73 1.49 7.86 0.000 8.78 14.67
Heat units -13.92 5.76 - 0.017 -25.29 2.56
Tea bush age -14.84 9.81 - 0.132 -34.19 4.52
Yrs after 25.74 10.41 2.47 0.014 5.20 46.28
hectares -42.87 14.58 - 0.004 -71.63 -14.11
Max Temperature -160.54 75.25 - 0.034 -309.02 12.07
Plucking method 82.87 230.54 0.36 0.720 -372.00 537.73
Plucking method -1116.62 251.71 - 0.000 -1613.27 619.98
Teatype2 -438.4 259.60 - 0.093 -950.8 73.76
Plucking -1125.52 536.00 - 0.037 -2183.09 67.95
Cons 16322.14 2115.13 7.72 0.000 12148.82

The analysis showed that yield significantly decreased with increased altitude (coefficient –6.4, p=0.000).
This was expected because temperature drops with increased altitude, which reduces the growth of tea
shoots (bushes) and consequently yield.

The analysis further showed that with increasing plant population, yield significantly reduced (coefficient
–0.2, p=0.000). This was not expected because various past research work have shown that increased
plant population increases yield. Laycock (1961) at TRFCA showed that a closer spacing resulting into 8
600 plants ha-1 was economically justifiable. In Northern and Southern Australia, densities of 27 000 for
tea seed grown directly in the field and 12 000 plants ha-1 for seedling tea are recommended. In Kenya,
yield response has been reported from 26 900 to 111 100 plants ha-1 during the first two years. In China,
it has been reported that over a 10-year period, a density of 180 000 plants ha-1 was more profitable than
120 000 plants ha-1. The possible reason for this inverse relationship was the pooling of data from rain
fed and irrigated estates. Increased population under rain fed conditions, where soil moisture deficits are
commonly experienced, can decrease yield because of inter-plant competition for moisture.

The area under tea varied between estates and those that had large areas had lower yields (coefficient –
42.9, p=0.004). Low management practices and limited agronomic inputs caused this inverse relationship
because large estates were either plucked late or weeded late because of the labour shortage, and probably

6
had less fertiliser applied and other cultural practices were not optimum because of economic problems of
the country.

As was expected, increased nitrogen application resulted in increased yields (coefficient 11.7, p=0.000).
Nitrogen is a major determinant of yield. Reduced applications naturally reduce yield.

Estates that used hand/machine and hand/shears plucking methods had significantly lower yields
compared to those that used hands or machines only (coefficient –1125.5, p=0.037 and coefficient 1116.6,
p=0.000).). This confirms findings from the mechanical harvesting experiment currently underway.

As years after down pruning increased there was a significant increase in yields (coefficient 25.7,
p=0.014). This was not surprising because soon after down pruning, bush size is significantly reduced
and consequently bush productivity. As the bush regains its size with time after down pruning,
productivity increases.

Increase in the monthly total heat units was associated with a significant decrease in yields (-13.9,
p=0.017) similar to increased average maximum daily temperature (coefficient –160.54, p=0.034). This
was according to expectation for tea under rain fed conditions in hot dry months of the year, September to
November before the rains. During this time, the saturation vapour pressure deficit is normally high and
tea bush growth ceases and productivity is significantly reduced.

Lessons from this study were as follows. It was not easy to get data from the estates, either because it was
not there or was not properly organised. The project, as a result, took four instead of one year. Some
estates had to be visited several times to collect the data. Estates are therefore encouraged to keep
functional databases and train their staff in data handling. This will not only improve estate data
management and quality, but also lead to collecting a wide range of data and development of accurate
databases. This is very crucial for sustainability of the estates' business.

References:
Martin, P.J. (1998). Results of a survey of clonal planting by estates in Malawi, Zimbabwe and the
Republic of South Africa Tea Research Foundation (CA) Quarterly Newsletter 130, pp 3-7.
Martin and Nachanje, 1998). Recent TRF support to the Malawi smallholder. Tea Research Foundation
(CA) Quarterly Newsletter 132, pp 3-8
Schaeffer, R. L., Mendenhall, W., and Tot, L. 1990. “Elementary Survey Sampling.” pp 205-211.
Tanganda Tea Company, Agriculture Division Stat-pack for the season Nov 2004 to October 2005.
Compiled by Phil Gargan
Tanganda Tea Company, Agriculture Division Stat-pack for the season January 2008 to Dec 2008.
Compiled by Phil Gargan

7
Proposal for the re-establishment of biclonal seed production

H E Nyirenda
Introduction
During the survey conducted by TRFCA scientists in 2008 to document the effects of drought on
commercial tea fields, observations showed that young and many semi-mature tea bushes of vegetatively
propagated (VP) cultivars PC 105 and PC 108 died while bushes of similar age of cultivars PC 168, PC
185, PC 198 and PC 213 were hardly affected (Nyirenda, 2007). It was further observed that mature
bushes of PC 105 and PC 108 and those of seedling tea were not affected by drought. For example, over 9
years old rain-fed tea fields of PC 105 at Esperanza and Makandi estates had a solid stand.

In this drought year, large areas planted to PC 168, replacing the seedling tea, defoliated which is its
mechanism of drought tolerance. Close to three weeks after the rains started, it had not flushed
adequately to warrant plucking. This worried some growers and they concluded that the seedling tea
would have survived the drought better, and plucking would have started not as long as PC 168 started.
However, this conclusion overlooked the age effect on the response of the cultivars to drought conditions.
Based on this conclusion, they requested for the re-establishment of biclonal seedling tea varieties.

This article outlines past work on bi-clonal seed production, reasons for suspending the programme, the
potential approach in alleviating drought effects, progress made on re-establishing and resuming old
biclonal seed gardens.

Background work
The use of seedling tea varieties for commercial tea fields in central and southern Africa region dates back
to the birth of the tea industry, towards the end of the19th century. First plantations of tea in Malawi in
1896 were with the unimproved seedling tea of china type (Camellia sinensis var sinensis L.). This
cultivar is characterized by relatively low catechin content and low polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity and
small light shoots associated with low field and labour productivity and average quality of its plain black
tea. It also has a relatively high degree of tolerance to adverse climatic conditions, particularly drought.
This type of tea was superseded by the Assam type (C. sinensis var assamica L.) raised from unimproved
seed in 1940s. The Assam type has a relatively high catechin content and high PPO activity and large
shoots. This results into a high plain black tea quality and high yield.

Attempts to produce improved seedling varieties were undertaken by selecting and vegetatively
propagating some bushes from the Assam seedling population based on leaf appearance for better leaf
uniformity and productivity. Polyclonal seed gardens comprising at least six clones were established both
at TRFCA and at several estates to produce polyclonal seed for commercial planting. To improve over
the polyclonal seedling populations, biclonal seed gardens were later established at TRFCA. Each seed
garden had two clones selected on the basis of leaf appearance, in order to minimise leaf heterogeneity.
This approach leads to using parental stocks from the Assam type only, thereby not exploiting heterotic
effects of hybridization.

Later work on biclonal seedling varieties aimed at improving black tea quality and biclonal seed gardens
were therefore established predominantly using high quality cultivars SFS 204 and PC 1 as one of the two
8
parental clones in nearly all the new seed gardens in order to produce biclonal seedling tea particularly for
the smallholder tea sector. Thirty-two biclonal seed gardens were established in isolation areas (IA)
within Mimosa Forest Reserve by 1978.

The programme to produce vegetatively propagated (VP) cultivars commenced in 1957. Individual
bushes were selected from established seedling populations at Mimosa and Swazi (now Nsuwadzi) tea
fields. These selections were labelled as MFS (representing Mimosa field selection) and SFS
(representing Swazi field selection) clones, e.g. MFS 61, MFS 87 now RC 1 and MFS 97 and SFS 150,
SFS 180, SFS 204 and SFS 371. They were screened for quality based on fermentation ability in
chloroform test and off-season growth. Their made tea quality was acceptable and they recovered early
from prune or had good bush condition in dry season, reflecting ability to tolerate drought. For this
reason, SFS 150 and SFS 204 became popular in the region and interest automatically waned in planting
seedling tea varieties (polyclonal and biclonal tea). In late 1970s when PC 81 was selected and released
for its very high yielding potential and better black tea quality than seedling tea varieties, (Table 1 and
TRFCA Annual reports for 1986/87), the breeding programme concentrated on the development of VP
cultivars.

Table 6.1: Made tea yield (kg / ha) of some seedling tea in comparison with
vegetatively propagated varieties

Year 1982/83 1983/4 1984/85 1985/86 1986/87 Mean

Season 6 7 8 9 10
Prune P UP1 P UP1 UP2
Vegetatively propagated cultivars at Nsuwadzi under irrigation
SFS 150 6041 4529 6379 4310 5651 5382
PC 81 4134 4186 5356 3859 5199 4547
SFS 210 5055 4386 5631 3660 5098 4766
SFS 204 4257 3511 5157 3546 4538 4202
Mean 4872 4153 5631 3844 5122 4724
Seedling tea cultivars at Nsuwadzi under irrigation
ECJ B 3951 3227 4343 3183 3632 3667
CJ 1 3905 3187 4192 3000 3489 3555
ECJ A 4116 3278 4160 2968 3436 3592
Mean 3991 3231 4232 3050 3519 3505
Vegatatively propagated cultivars under rain fed at Mimosa
PC 81 1502 2154 3415 2568 3918 2711
SFS 150 1788 1889 3008 2490 3404 2516
SFS 180 2257 3043 3212 2965 3183 2932
SFS 210 1217 1751 2642 1825 2714 2030
SFS 204 949 1502 1994 2192 2374 1802
Mean 1543 2068 2854 2408 3119 2398
9
 ECJ A 1566 1812 2180 2422 2301 2056
BJ 1 1419 1698 2139 1943 2164 1873
SJ 2 1409 1716 2148 2414 2136 1965
Mean 1465 1742 2156 2260 2200 1965

PC 105, PC 108, PC 117 and PC 122 were developed and released in 1980s. These cultivars performed
better than the seedling tea at estates and in smallholder tea fields. Following the success story of these
cultivars, estates including small growers, for whom seedling tea cultivars were recommended, opted for
vegetatively propagated cultivars. This was a plausible move and direction for the tea industry because as
reported by Ellis (1983), it was the only way to produce large volumes of high quality tea as supported by
Synman (1986) regardless of improved management and agronomic inputs. Subsequently, the smallholder
sector through the Smallholder Tea Authority had to contract the Foundation to produce only rooted VP
plants for consolidating smallholder tea fields and the expansion programs between 1995 and 2004
(Stabex Evaluation Report, 2007).

Resumption of biclonal seedling varieties

The main objective of the previous breeding programs was to improve quality and yield without
overlooking the response of cultivars to biotic and abiotic factors in selecting cultivars. Under relatively
optimum precipitation conditions from mid 1970s to mid 1980s, the yielding and the quality of seedling
and VP cultivars was compared in field trials. The weather pattern has since then completely changed.
There are now recurrent droughts and their associated high temperatures in the hot dry months. The
recurrent droughts cause many plant deaths of some VP cultivar tea at semi-mature ages in most rain fed
tea fields. In order to understand the drought tolerance of some cultivars and the susceptibility of others,
the comparison started of the root system of seedling tea bushes and of the vegetatively propagated plants.

Results from preliminary work suggested there were no significant differences in root depth between 5-
year old vigorous and weak bushes of some biclonal seedling and drought tolerant cultivar PC 198 (Table
2). However, vigorous plants of both tea types tended to develop a deeper root system than the weak
ones. This suggested that if the seedling plants were homogeneous in vigorous growth and root
development and a population of such plants developed a deep root system, it would easily produce a
solid bush stand under drought conditions. Unfortunately, Visser (1956) and Nyirenda (1987) reported
that only a small proportion of bushes of seedling tea are vigorous in growth, with a majority of them
being weak, thus disadvantaging seedling tea varieties over the homogeneous plants of the clonal tea.

In order to achieve a higher proportion of vigorous sturdy seedling tea bushes in a biclonal seedling
population than that found by Visser (1956) and Nyirenda (1987) which are associated with a deep root
system (Nyirenda, 2009), use of diverse tea germplasm in crossing would exploit heterotic effects better
(Singh, 2006). It is for this reason that the new breeding policy advocates revival of work on biclonal
seedling varieties using diverse tea germplasm in comparison with pure as well as a mixed stand of VP
plants established from at least five drought tolerant cultivars (Nyirenda et al; 2009).

10
The observation further confirmed the need to grade strictly the rooted clonal tea plants in the nursery
prior to transplanting to ensure that only well rooted plants are planted, even for very drought tolerant
cultivars, for a good bush survival and uniformity in recovery from drought conditions.

Table 6.2: Comparison of root depth and root circumference between 5–years old
seedling and PC 198 vegetatively propagated plants
Bush growth habit Cultivar Root Root
depth (cm) Diameter (mm)
Vigorous bushes Seedling 122.3 93.3
PC 198 124.2 63.9
P-value 0.8771 <0.0223
Significance level ns *
CV% 11.7 12.7
Seedling 112.1 71.6
PC 198 109.1 59.0
P-value 0.5529 0.0902
Significance level ns ns
CV% 11.5 28.7

Although there were no differences in root depth in 5-year old plants between clonal and seedling
varieties, some growers believe that seedling tea cultivars (that) should survive drought better than the
clonal varieties because they develop a tap root that clonal plants do not. The root depth results of the
vigorous seedling and clonal tea plants did not support this conviction.

Objectives of the biclonal seed production programme

The biclonal seed gardens still existing in isolation areas (IAs) in the forest at Mimosa Research Station
have been revamped. They comprise largely either SFS 204 or PC 1, as a common quality parental stock
planted with another cultivar selected for growth attributes. Some have two Assam types as parental
clones. Seeds from such closely related parental clones would not express heterotic effects and would
easily succumb to adverse growing conditions.

The objectives of the programme will be to produce biclonal seedling populations from crosses involving
diverse cultivars in order for the populations to express maximum heterosis in desirable characteristics,
and evaluate the populations for drought tolerance, yield and off-season crop production and black tea
quality and identify which would produce drought tolerant seedling tea bushes with above average black
tea quality for reasonable consistent production under drought conditions.

Patience is required from stakeholders to achieve these objectives because the re-establishment of the
gardens and evaluation of the seedling populations will take some years. This will be exacerbated by
many vacancies in most of the gardens which will need infilling. This will reduce the quantity of seeds
produced per season. The gardens comprise predominantly genetically very closely related cultivars
(Table 3). Since the focus now is to improve drought tolerance through exploiting heterosis, some
drought susceptible cultivars in the gardens will need replacing while others converting through top-
working with the drought tolerant cultivars, respectively. This will further delay the production of
11
seedling populations but necessary because parental stocks must be diversified as much as possible, but
without compromising on quality cultivars as the industry must produce competitive black tea.

Table 6.3: Biclonal seed gardens established in Mimosa Forest Reserve between
1972 and 1978 and those to be re-established
IA Parental clones Survivin Future plans New Expected date
g parents for starting
Bushes evaluation expt
2 Only SFS 150 63 Top-work RC 6& RC6&PC Seed collection &
PC 198 in Aug 2009 198 germination in May 2012
3 No records -
4 No record -
5 Mixed -
10 SFS 204 & C 5 34&28 Top-work with PC 168 & PC PC 168 & Seed collection &
198 in Aug 2009 and infill PC 198 germination in May 2012
11 No record None - -
12 SFS 204 & M 4 33&17 Top-work with RC 4 & RC 6 in RC4& RC 6 Seed collection &
Ag 2009 and infill germination in May 2012
13 SFS 204 & M 9 30&20 Top-work with PC 185 & PC PC185 & Seed collection &
198 in Aug 2009 and infill PC198 germination in May 2012
14 SFS 204 & O 11 8 & 24 - -
15 SFS 204 & S 11 29&18 Top-work with PC 198 & RC 6 PC198 & Seed collection &
in Ag 2009 and infill RC 6 germination in May 2012
16 SFS 204 & S 17 10&4 - -
17 SFS 204 & MT 12 11&11 SFS 150 & UPASI 9 in 2010 SFS150& Seed collection &
UPASI 9 germination in May 2013
18 PC 1 & MT 7 - -
19 PC 1 & SFS 150 22&18 Top-work TN 14-3 on PC 1 in PC1&TN Seed collection &
Aug 2010 and infill 14-3 germination in May 2013
20 SFS 204 & K6/8 39&15 Top-work with UPASI 1 and UPASI&UP Seed collection &
UPASI 9 in 2009 and infill ASI 9 germination in May 2012
21 M 9 & CL 12 20&20 Maintain and infill M9 & CL 12 Seed collection &
germination in May 2012
22 M 9 & CL 17 14&10 - -
23 Na None - -
24 O 11 & CL 12 20&16 - -
25 MT 12 & CL 12 24&19 Maintain and infill MT 12& CL Seed collection &
12 germination in May 2012
26 MT 12 & MT 7 15&25 -
27 BB 35 & SFS 150 14&28 Maintain and infill SFS150& Seed collection &
BB 35 germination in May 2012
28 BB 35 & PC 1 18&27 Top-work with PC198& UPASI PC198& Seed collection &
9 in 2010 and infill UPASI 9 germination in May 2013
12
 29 PC 1 & S 17 37&24 Maintain and infill PC1& Seed collection &
S 17 germination in May 2012
30 M 9 & C 5 None - -
31 PC 1 & C 5 16&21 - -
32 PC 1 & I 5 18&21 Top-work with PC 185 & PC185& Seed collection &
UPASI 9 in 2010 UPASI 9 germination in May 2013
33 Na None - -

Progress made to date

Preparation of the IAs for this programme started in July 2009. The gardens were weeded, other tree
species that grew in the gardens were removed, live bushes counted (Table 6.3). The conversion of some
cultivars started in August 2009 by top working as indicated in the table. The take off of the grafted
scions is being observed.

Conclusion
After some growers in December 2008 requested that development of seedling tea cultivars should restart,
it was found in September 2009 that their request was based on the response to drought of the seedling
and cultivar tea of different age groups. This was wrong and invalidated the conclusion that seedling tea
cultivars, because they have a taproot system, could be more drought tolerant than clonal cultivars.
Nevertheless, the biclonal seed production programme will continue with the objectives stated above i.e.
production of seedling populations that will be crossed to other parent materials in order to develop
cultivars with desirable characteristics, particularly drought. Immediately, a field trial comparing biclonal
seedling variety and drought tolerant VP cultivars will be set up using outsourced seed while re-
establishing biclonal seed gardens for production of seedling populations that might be included in later
trials.

Reference
Ellis RT (1983). Tea Biologist 30 (5): 247 – 255
Nyirenda HE (2007). Selection criteria for vigour in tea. PhD Thesis, University of Wales, UK.
Nyirenda HE (2007). The worst historic drought of the year 2005: Lessons learned by growers and
researchers. Tea Research Foundation of Central Africa Newsletter 147, 4 – 17.
Nyirenda HE (2009). Genetic improvement of tea project: Establishment of objective selection criteria –
Growth attributes. TRFCA Research Committee Meeting 11, 16 – 22
Nyirenda HE, Kumwenda AS and NIK Mphangwe (2009). Plant breeding policy of the Tea Research
Foundation of Central Africa.
Stabex Evaluation Team (2007). Tea Sector. Final Evaluation of the Stabex Funded Programmes in
Malawi, First Draft, March 2007.
Synman N (1986). Dry beans – A better future. Improved cultivars from researchers’ breeding
programmes; Farmers Weekly (S. Africa), 76020, May 1986.
Visser T 1969. Tea (Camella sinensis (L) O.Kuntze. In: FP Ferwerda and F Wit (Eds.). Outlines of
perennial crop breeding in the tropics. Misc. Paper 4. Landbouwn. Wageningen, 459 – 493.

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The Tea Research Foundation has new cultivar pre–releases

H E Nyirenda
Introduction
Plant breeding is a continuous process. The progress on the production of improved superior vegetatively
propagated (VP) cultivars stagnated after the last releases of new cultivars in 2001. Three main factors
contributed to this stagnation.

First, there were changes in formulating and implementing research programs. Up to 2001, researchers
formulated research programs and growers did not participate in the formulation. Further, programs did
not have a specified duration. From 2002, all research activities were demand-driven by the tea industry,
with each project having a specific duration.

Second, from 2002 to 2006, there were minimal plant improvement activities because the TRFCA
Strategic Plan developed in 2002 deemed genetic improvement was no longer a priority because the
Foundation had developed several high yielding and high quality cultivars, which, were widely adopted
and thus there were minimal plant breeding activities from 2002 to 2006, a break of 4 years, on selections
that were carried forward from 2001. Growers indicated they were unlikely to replant them with new
cultivars until after a long time, a position soon after changed.

Third, lack of a reliable mini processing unit (MPU) for small samples for black tea quality determination
(optimum fermentation time and black tea quality characteristics) of the new selections limited the rate of
progress in selecting new cultivars.

It was the severe 2005 drought that changed priority position of plant breeding at the Foundation. During
this drought year, several estates in Malawi, particularly in Mulanje district, incurred many plant deaths of
some of the popular and widely adopted cultivars. The drought exposed deficiencies of cultivars like PC
105 and PC 108, cultivars that produced high quality and previously thought to have adequate tolerance to
drought but they severely succumbed to the drought of this year. It was subsequently decided to intensify
the search for cultivars that were highly tolerant to drought as well as to select cultivars that have
combined characteristics of drought tolerance, off-season growth and high made tea quality.

This article outlines the plant breeding activities preceding the selection of the new pre-releases and
describes their qualities.

Breeding, selection and the pre-release scheme

In the past plant breeding programs, crosses were made every year. Progenies from the crosses were
screened for fermentation ability using chloroform test (Bendall 1958; Sanderson 1961), growth attributes
and ease of vegetative propagation. The shortlisted lines were evaluated in the statistically designed
adaptation yield trials for ease of field establishment, tolerance to biotic and abiotic stressful factors, yield

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potential and finally black tea quality potential determined by professional tea tasters. At the same time,
they were pre-released to growers who wanted to test them on a large scale under the pre-release scheme.

The main purpose of this scheme is two-fold. Firstly, to enable growers to establish small pilot plots of
promising selections from which they can observe and monitor their performance and identify those most
suited to the estate growing conditions. Breeders periodically visit and assess these selections in order to
get feedback from the growers on the performance of the selections. This information is additional to the
data recorded about each selection in multi-site adaptation trials. It is used when considering the release
of a selection as a commercial cultivar. Secondly, the pre-release scheme was established to allow
growers to have their own source material of any cultivar from the pre-releases that might be released, and
thereby speed up their expansion or replanting program using the improved cultivar.

The last group of pre-releases coincided with the changes in the research management system. There were
however, as a result of the work undertaken up to 2001, selections in the various stages of the breeding
program for developing improved VP cultivars. These selections formed the foundation and source of
material of the resumed genetic improvement program in 2006.

The new pre–releases

The selections at various stages of plant breeding were assessed for drought tolerance as reflected by bush
survival, and cool season growth based on visual assessment score of 1-10, 1 being dormant and 10
actively growing shoots (Table 1). Commercial cultivars were included in the screening programs as
controls. Selections were also assessed for fermentation ability and brown colour development using
chloroform test and cropping determined by plucking each plot of 2 rows x 8 bushes spaced at 1.20 m
between rows and 0.75 m along the row separately, and converting plot green leaf yield to made tea ha-1
using a factor of 147.9985. Screening for black tea quality on these selections commenced.

Results
Results from these assessments showed that out of 395 new selections, which included those pre-released
in 2001 for confirmation on their tolerance to drought and cool season growth, 24 listed in Table 1
compared very well with the commercial cultivars and were selected as pre-releases. Yield data collected
before the 2005 drought showed that most of these selections have a high yield potential, very comparable
to that of PC 108, some exceeding it.

Table 1: Made tea yield (kg ha-1) (PC 108=100%), fermentation time in chloroform (minutes),
%bush survival in December 2008, cool season growth (CSG) score and nominal valuation
(NV) (US cents/kg made tea) of new pre-releases
Selection Cross Yield per season BS% CSG NV

3rd 4th 5th FT minutes Dec 08 Score

88/52 – 14* PC 1 x SFS 150 135 118 139 <40 minutes; ClfT 100.0 8.5 102.0

86/27 – 3 PC 1 x TN 14/3 124 111 136 About 60 minutes 81.3* 8.5 94.0

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86/8 – 1 SFS 150 x K 6/8 132 116 115 <60 minutes 100.0 8.5 96.0

88/2 – 5* SFS 150 x PC 1 117 113 129 <60 minutes 37.5 9.0 96.0

15M – 1* M 9 x SFS 204 125 98 103 <40 minutes; DB 93.8 7.0 97.0

84/13 – 20 PC 1 x TN 14/3 92 90 130 <40 minutes 81.3 8.5 101.0

84/16 – 44 SFS 150 x BB 35 117 107 88 <40 minutes 87.5 9.5 104.0

88/6 – 7* PC 1 x SFS 150 96 94 85 <40 minutes 90.7* 9.5 101.0

85/8 – 8 SFS180xSR/9A/58 82 79 91 about 60 minutes 68.8 8.0 98.0

88/49 – 11* PC 1 x SFS 150 57 88 104 <40 minutes 75.0 9.5 97.0

86/15 – 17* CL 12 x TN 14/3 61 74 64 <40 minutes; CR 68.8 9.0

PC 108 SFS 210 x SFS 180 1251 1820 2464 <40minutes 37.5 8.0

91/7 – 9* SFS 150 x PC 1 181 185 93 <60 minutes 56.3 9.5 103.0

91/3 – 15* SFS 150 x PC 1 180 125 90 >60 minutes 93.8 8.5 97.0

91/7 – 37 M 9 x SFS 204 137 106 116 About 60 minutes 93.8 4.0 102.0

91/11 – 3* SFS 150 x PC 1 90 152 86 <40 minutes 100.0 8.5 99.0

11/11 – 5 Open 117 58 130 >60 minutes 100.0 9.0

91/6 – 37* M 9 x S 15/10 114 102 88 >60 minutes 68.8 9.5 99.0

91/6 – 44* M 9 x S 15/10 88 108 92 <60 minutes 93.8 9.0 99.0

91/2 – 36 SFS 150 x PC 1 109 93 82 < 40 minutes; CR 93.8 9.0 100.0

PC 108 688 1014 2368 CR 35.0 7.0

95/4 – 43 SFS 150 x PC 168 187 110 150 About 60 minutes 100.0 8.5 101.0

95/2 – 46 154 106 159 G after 60 minutes 100.0 8.0

94/6 – 13 Open 157 80 131 <40 minutes; CR 93.8 8.5 101.0

94/7 – 11 124 88 128 about 60 minutes 100.0 8.5 101.0

94/3 – 28 PC 81 x PC 108 75 41 87 about 40 minutes 87.5 9.5 104.0

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 PC 108 777 1628 1761 37.5 7.5

Eleven line marked with asterisk are from the previous pre-releases. The other selections succumbed to
the severe 2005 and 2008 drought conditions. This assisted in selecting selections that showed high
tolerance to drought that ensures good field establishment.

Not included in the table are the following lines: 84/30-20, Swazi Local 5 and Swazi Local 40. These
lines are also included in the pre-release list. 84/30-20 has shown good growth vigour in the main
growing season and good response drought conditions. The two Swazi local lines are for good made tea
quality and can be tried.

Although central African teas are renowned for their infusion and liquoring characteristics and are
deemed plain (without aroma), some growers are exploring special markets demanding flavour
characteristic. Two cultivars, which have aroma characteristics, have therefore been included in the new
pre-releases. These were selected from china (Camellia sinensis var sinensis) seedling population.

Further work
While some of the growers who might be interested in trying some of these pre-releases are assessing
them, evaluation of the selections will continue in three multi-site adaptation trials. Already three trials,
two under rainfed growing conditions and one under irrigation have been established in Mulanje district.
The evaluation will focus on their black tea quality and off- season (cool season and hot season) growth
because some of the selections might be promising in terms of field growth, but may not have desirable
black tea quality and yield. Similar trials with more of these selections will also be established in Thyolo
(Malawi) and Zimbabwe.

Until later on, no new crosses will be made because there are sufficient base selections for genetic
improvement activities. Several selections are currently being evaluated for nursery and preliminary field
performance and fermentation ability using chloroform. Promising selections will then undergo screening
for black tea quality before they will be pr-released.

Availability of plant materials

The normal practice is to allow each interested estate to have 100 cuttings of each selection. By April
2009, they were available for distribution to interested growers and other should send their orders to the
Director. It was interesting to see some companies ordering some of these pre-releases soon after the 2009
Field Days.

Conclusion
It is important that genetic improvement program continues to cater for mishaps that may arise because of
undetected deficiencies in the current superior cultivars. If the program was stopped after releasing PC1 to
PC 108 clones, higher yielding and high quality and more drought tolerant cultivars developed after PC
108 would not have been selected. The industry would have panicked because there would be no cultivars
like PC 168 and PC 185 and PC 198 that were identified during the year as highly resistant to drought.

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Development of new cultivars, particularly of perennial crops like tea, takes several years. Depending on
the performance of earlier released, it is not normally easy to improve over them when they are excellent
performers. Patience is required from both the breeders and the stakeholders. One simple mistake in the
evaluation process can cost the tea industry a fortune.

With the new pre-releases now available, it is expected and hoped that many growers will join TRFCA in
evaluating them. This is not only important for researchers but for growers as well. For researchers, the
data from the estates confirms the performance of the pr-releases under experimental conditions. This
increases confidence in the performance of the earmarked cultivars for release. For growers that would
participate in evaluating the pre-releases, it is an opportunity for them to quickly increase the area under
the newly released cultivar because they will have ready planting material of it and propagate it for
planting at their estates. One estate in Malawi which has successfully utilized this scheme in the past has
requested TRFCA to advise on the selections that could be promising for their growing conditions.

This statement sums it up all! The latent opportunities appear to outweigh the perceived threats. The
breeding program must be visionary and proactive.

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