Public-private partnership enables investments in rice research in Tocantins

In the state of Tocantins, rice agribusiness plays a very important role in generating foreign exchange and jobs, with the region currently being the third largest rice producer in Brazil.

Rice cultivation in the State is positioned between the three production chains (meat, soybeans and rice) in terms of importance and gross value of production (VBP); This means that, in addition to generating jobs and income, the State contributes to the regional development of southwestern Tocantins, directly or indirectly benefiting thirteen municipalities. In the 2018/2019 harvest alone, for example, production is estimated at 705 thousand tons of paddy rice, in an area of ​​approximately 108 thousand hectares.

Considering, also, that the rice produced in Tocantins is important for supplying the states of the North and Northeast region, which have the cereal as a staple in their meals.

However, being in the tropical region, rice crops in this State challenge the high incidence and severity of diseases present in the crop, mainly rice blast, caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, which presents the greatest diversity of pathotypes ever described in Brazil, which leads to a rapid breakdown in the resistance of cultivars released for cultivation.

Another aspect to be highlighted is that irrigated rice in Tocantins has faced restrictions in the availability of water pumped from rivers for irrigation of crops, as a result of the irregular distribution of rainfall in the State. As a result, the production system irrigated by flooding with the use of a sheet of water inevitably tends to be replaced by the system using saturated soil, also known as “humid floodplain”, whose main problem is the infestation of crops by weeds. .

This disadvantage, however, reduced its importance after the emergence of cultivars with genetic tolerance to broad-spectrum herbicides, from the chemical group of Imidazolinones, which makes it possible to control weeds and weedy rice.

The Brazilian market is already very demanding regarding the quality of rice grains, which is expressed by the yield of whole grains, the class and commercial type, and the culinary quality (softness, stickiness, flavor, etc.). In the tropical region, industrial quality, mainly, tends to be lower due to the high relative humidity of the air and the pests and diseases that occur in rice crops in Tocantins, which leads to a greater incidence of broken grains with a white center.

Thus, this scenario requires from rice genetic improvement greater agility in the development of elite lines for the tropical region of Brazil, not only with high productive potential, but with the presence of tolerance to herbicide, genetic resistance to the main diseases of the crop, especially to blast, with distinct maturation cycles (early and medium) to allow for planting and harvesting to be staggered, and with the presence of “noble” grains in both industrial and culinary aspects.

The approach with seed production companies operating in the State, driven by the excellence of the cultivars currently launched (BRS Catiana, BRS Pampeira and BRS A702 CL) by Embrapa, resulted in a significant increase in the area planted with Embrapa cultivars, which went from 5 % in the 2016/2017 harvest to 78% in the 2018/2019 harvest.

This demonstrates that the cultivars launched by Embrapa are of high quality and the main interest of collaboration with these companies is in the theme of genetic improvement of rice for Tocantins, with greater involvement of them in the development of new cultivars to make seed availability more agile. .

The use of cultivars adapted to the climate and soil conditions of Tocantins, as they are selected by the breeding program for disease tolerance, has significantly contributed to reducing the use of pesticides in rice crops in Tocantins, with reduction rates of 50% of the number of fungicide applications in the 2018/2019 harvest, resulting in environmental gains, reduced production costs and greater profitability for rice farmers.

In March 2019, Embrapa formalized a technical cooperation contract, with the Research and Development Support Foundation (FAPED), and the seed producing companies operating in Tocantins (Uniggel Sementes - Indústria e Comércio de Sementes LTDA; Valdemir João Simão - Sementes Simão; and Jorge Augusto Barragana Brazeiro - Brazeiro Sementes), valid for four years, that is, until March 2023.

The main advantage of this partnership is that Embrapa will have a more agile, dynamic and safe mechanism for adopting and disseminating technologies developed for the region, mainly due to the security of making seeds of new cultivars available.