Agristar creates lettuce improvement program

The research department at Agristar do Brasil has been working towards the tropicalization of materials. To this end, it recently created a program aimed at improving lettuce, which is being developed in Santo Antônio de Posse (SP) by researcher Carolina Franco.

Born in the Triângulo Mineiro region (MG), Carolina has a degree in Agricultural Engineering from the Federal University of Uberlândia and a master's degree from the Agronomy (Genetics and Plant Improvement) program at the Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), on the Jaboticabal Campus, integrating the Center for Studies in Olericulture and Improvement (NEOM). In 2016 she began her doctorate course through the same program, having carried out part of her project at the University of California, Davis (USA). Her main work consisted of monitoring breeds of lettuce downy mildew (bremia lactucae) in the South and Southeast regions of Brazil.

Its relationship with Agristar began in 2014, when the company began to collaborate in the collection of mildew from lettuce. “This partnership was very important for enabling the expansion of the disease monitoring area in Brazil, generating unprecedented information”, he highlights. Currently responsible for the company's crop improvement program, she highlights that lettuce is the most consumed leafy vegetable in the world. “In Brazil, the main problems observed in this crop are still related to adaptation to high temperatures and rainfall. When it comes to diseases, lettuce downy mildew is one of the main diseases that occur in winter, which can cause up to 100% of crop losses and is also aggravated by the occurrence of several breeds”.

Given this, she explains that the program was created with the purpose of developing cultivars adapted to the climate and, mainly, resistant to the breeds of downy mildew identified in Brazil. “In addition, the first work will be aimed at developing cultivars of the curly and American types, as they are the main types of lettuce sold in the country. The work is hard and requires time, but with all the infrastructure the company offers, good results will certainly be obtained”, adds Carolina.