Embrapa and IBB promote workshop on cassava seed cuttings.

Embrapa Cassava and Fruit Crops and the Biofactory Institute of Bahia are promoting a workshop on the production of cassava planting materials with health and genetic identity, from March 3rd to 6th in Ilhéus. This initiative is part of the Decentralized Execution Agreement (TED-Reniva), funded by the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture and coordinated by Embrapa.

The event brings together technical assistance and rural extension agents, plant protection professionals, cassava growers, nursery owners, biofactories, entrepreneurs, scholarship recipients, and students. The initiative seeks to implement the Reniva Network. The strategy foresees the commercial production of planting materials in six states in the North: Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Rondônia, Roraima, and Tocantins; and three in the Northeast: Bahia, Alagoas, and Paraíba.

The opening will feature Marenilson Batista da Silva, Director of Technical Assistance and Rural Extension at MDA, Aldo Vilar Trindade, Deputy Head of Technology Transfer at Embrapa, Lanns Almeida, Superintendent of Bahiater, and Valdemir Santos, CEO of IBB.

Marenilson Silva emphasizes that the training expands the partnership between MDA and Embrapa. He states that propagation materials with genetic quality, productivity, and health strengthen the production system and guarantee healthy food.

Aldo Vilar Trindade points to the IBB as a strategic base for the expansion of cassava materials in the country. According to him, the financial support from the MDA to TED-Reniva consolidates technical and strategic information for new cassava growers interested in joining the network.

Valdemir Santos states that the training strengthens cassava farming in Bahia and Brazil. He emphasizes the dissemination of good practices and technologies to producers.

In the program, researcher Saulo Oliveira, from Embrapa, will teach classes on the main diseases of the crop and on cassava witches' broom, also called dieback. The disease has a high destructive potential. The fungus Rhizoctonia theobromae (Ceratobasidium theobromae) causes the problem. Dissemination occurs through planting material and tools. Rigorous control protects healthy crops. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock has declared a phytosanitary emergency in the country due to the threat to food and economic security. Oliveira leads research on the subject in Brazil.

Agricultural engineer Herminio Souza Rocha will present the Etiolation method for the Production of Cassava Seedlings and Mini-cuttings (EPMM). This technique increases multiplication rates and preserves the health and genetic identity of cassava. Embrapa will release a publication with consolidated technical recommendations on the method.

The event will also include the delivery of a thermal chamber for generating plants with high phytosanitary quality through thermotherapy. Helton Fleck da Silveira will give a lecture on the technique, weed management, leaf collection for virus analysis, and tool sanitation.

Researchers from Embrapa will discuss insect pests and integrated pest management, cassava and bitter manioc processing, and production systems such as no-till farming and double rows. The program includes a visit to the IBB's Plant Micropropagation Laboratory and theoretical and practical activities.