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Professor Sinclair Mantell Director and Senior Consultant in Horticulture and Workshop Training at NAKHLATEC |
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About Us |
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International Horticulture Advisors |
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Providing technical advice and supportive training workshops |
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The name “Nakhlatec” derives from the arabic word “Nakhla” (meaning datepalm) and “tec” (represents the technologies of tissue culture and molecular biology) and our advisors have acquired substantial technical expertise in datepalm genetic improvement. NAKHLATEC advice led to the establishment of a successful tissue culture laboratory for the Ministry of Agriculture, Sultanate of Oman based in Nizwa producing elite datepalm, banana, irish potato and pineapple in large numbers. Assistance can therefore be provided in the development of large scale multiplication systems for vegetatively propagated crops (for a full listing see Technical Services).
The NAKHLATEC office is located in Blekinge, the “Garden of Sweden”. It is easily reached by road just north-east of the seaports of Karlskrona and Karlshamn and the airports at Ronneby and Kastrup (Copenhagen International Airport) expediting transport of materials and the travel of technical experts to global destinations where technical assistance and training expertise are required.
Professor Sinclair Mantell is NAKHLATEC’s Director and is a horticultural scientist with over 30 years’ experience in research, tertiary education and in-service training in Europe and developing countries. For the last fifteen years he has been working out of a base in Sweden and this has enabled him to work closely with the International Foundation of Science (IFS) based in Stockholm. This foundation which is sponsored by many international development agencies focuses on supporting young scientists under the age of forty years while working in their home countries so as to retain and build the scientific capacity to generate local information important for development and poverty alleviation.
As an IFS Senior Scientific Advisor in Forest Resources, Professor Mantell regularly reviews grant applications on tree science, conservation of forest resources and crop domestication — topics that often involve integration of traditional horticultural practices as well as the deployment of modern plant molecular biology and tissue culture techniques. His publication work has extended into scientific editing. Over the ten years 1986 to 1996, he was an associated editor of the Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology and has during his academic career been an occasional reviewer of articles published in Phytochemistry, Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture and Plant Cell Reports.
Professor Mantell is a technical advisor to Terra Garden Biotech (Malaysia) and has assisted that company develop tropical greenhouses and GMO containment houses for use under lowland tropical conditions. Frequently harsh heat and dry air caused by excessive air conditioning application in efforts to maintain temperatures below 30 degrees centigrade are often met by failures. The new generation of tropical greenhouses developed through this partnership exploit a cooling system know as EcoCool® which allows temperatures to be maintained at equable levels without using either air conditioning or wet pad cooling systems. In addition an instant tissue culture laboratory, the Instant TC Lab® is shippable to any destination in the world as a container with the capability of being operational after only a few days following arrival at an appointed site. For details on these developments refer to Products.
Many of NAKHLATEC’s advisors trained for their PhD degrees or carried out postdoctoral research in the Unit for Advanced Propagation Systems (UAPS), University of London (Wye College) under Professor Mantell’s supervision and his colleagues over the twenty year period 1983 - 2003. Some of their names appear as senior and co-authors in many of the Unit’s scientific and teaching outputs (Publications and Presentations).
NAKHLATEC consultants are professional research scientists based in Europe, Australasia, SE Asia, Africa and Latin America who can be called upon to provide expert technical advice and workshop training as listed under Technical Services. Assistance can often be provided close to the work site (thus reducing travel and costs). In some cases, on-site technical advice and workshop training can be provided not only in English, but also in either French or Arabic.
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The IFS Senior Scientific Advisory Committee in Forest Resources meeting in Antanarivo, Madagascar in May 2007 |
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Evaluating an Integrated Pest Management field trial on cotton |
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A scientific editing service is now available to researchers and other technical specialists wishing to receive special assistance and advisory support on how best to prepare their manuscripts for submission to international journals. For details refer to Technical Services. |
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NEW! |
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New products developed with Terra Garden Biotech in Malaysia. More details under Products
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