Papaya is conventionally bred through pedigree and backcross methods (Storey, 1953; Manshardt, 1992), as well
as inbreeding of ambivalent males to produce homozygous females (Aquilizan, 1987). These procedures require at least six to eight generations to breed a homozygous line (Ray, 2002). Anther culture is a promising technique for shortening the breeding cycle via haploid production. The first attempt to utilize anther culture in papaya breeding was made by Litz and Conover (1978, 1979) In both cases, they induced haploid plantlets from anthers cultured in MS liquid basal medium with 1% activated charcoal, 3% sucrose, 0.1–0.5 mg l1 NAA and 1–2 mg l1 BA. Tsay and Su (1985) induced haploid plants and embryoids at a rate of 0.67% from anthers cultured in MS with 3% sucrose and 1% agar. However, neither of the two groups reported on the progress of the plants to maturity or their utilization either in breeding or fruit production