Assessing the Sustainable Economic Benefits of Clonal Tissue Culture in Fruit‐Tree Industries: A Scenario‐Based Avocado Case Study in Australia

Abstract

There is an increasing global demand for fruit/nut tree foods. Traditionally, these trees are propagated via grafting onto rootstocks grown from seeds or using the double‐grafting technique, but this is laborious, expensive, and slow to provide seedlings to the industry. Although clonal tissue culturing can improve the supply and quality of seedling rootstock year‐round, little is known if this propagation technique is economically viable at the commercial scale. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating the economic benefits to avocado growers of clonal tissue‐cultured seedling adoption over traditional propagation methods. Queensland is the largest producer of Australian avocados; therefore, we used a bioeconomic model of an indicative Queensland avocado farm under different adoption scenarios. Bio‐physical and economic data were collected from local Queensland farms, nurseries and advisors. Findings revealed that the scenario of supplying fruit trees a year earlier with clonal tissue culture rootstock had greatest financial benefits to growers. For an indicative 25‐ha avocado farm, this included reduced investment costs of A$250k during the earlier years of production, a payback period shortened by 1.78 years, average earnings increased by A$3373/ha/year, and the grower’s wealth increased by more than $840k after 20 years. This increased wealth is from earlier seeding supply, which equates to a similar benefit from increasing crop yields by 10% over the 20‐year time horizon. This research contributes towards science technology adoption, product commercialisation, industry adoption theories, and provides further insights into the sustainable economic benefits of clonal tissue culture to avocado farmers’ resilience through increased gross margins, reduced initial capital investment, shorter payback periods, and thereby reducing the risk typically associated with establishing perennial tree‐crop enterprises. Globally, other fruit/nut tree industries may benefit from clonal tissue culture, not only through possible yield increases, but more importantly through shorter breeding cycles for cultivars to increase the supply of seedlings when required.