Technical Assistance Boosts Cambodia's Efforts to Fight Citrus Greening and Other Virus Diseases
On the second-year implementation of a three-year project aiming to rehabilitate the citrus industry in
Southeast Asian countries, the first Phytopathology Laboratory was established in Cambodia's Royal University of
Agriculture (RUA). A collaborative undertaking between FFTC, the National Taiwan University (NTU), and the Rural
Development Foundation (RDF) of Taiwan, a series of technical and financial support and instrument donation led to
the completion of the laboratory. The facility is expected to intensify RUA's research capacity to fight the devastating
citrus greening (HLB) and other citrus virus diseases and train young scientists in the areas of disease indexing,
production of virus-free nursery foundation, and healthy management to prevent re-infection. RUA has also
completed construction of a net-house for virus-free repository and disease-free nursery production. Under the coordination
and expertise of Dr. Hong-Ji Su, Professor Emeritus of the National Taiwan University (NTU) and FFTC
Technical Consultant, trainings on shoot-tip micro-grafting technology for virus-free germplasm foundation and
propagation/cultivation of disease-free seedlings were also conducted.
Index of Images
Figure 1 Prof. Su supervises Mr. Vung Setha of RUA on the use of new instruments at the RUA Phytopathology Laboratory.
Figure 2 Prof. Su and RDF specialist Dr. Sheng-Huang Lu donate precision instruments for HLB diagnosis to RUA.
Figure 3 RUA Vice Rector Mr. Ngo Bunthan and Prof. Su practice micro-grafting techniques in the new RUA citrus net-house.
