New highland rice cultivar will be launched at technological meeting

The Minas Gerais Agricultural Research Company (Epamig) is holding, in partnership with the “Melhor Arroz” research group at the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA), the 2nd Terras Altas Rice Technological Meeting, on March 27th. The event, free and in person, starts at 8am, at the Center for Scientific and Technological Development in Agriculture, located at Fazenda Muquém.

The program will feature presentations on the following topics: planting rice interspersed with other crops; highland rice cultivars recommended for Minas Gerais; use of bioinputs; and gastronomic possibilities with the grain. On that occasion, there will also be a pre-launch of the rice cultivar CMG 1590, developed by a partnership between Epamig, UFLA and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa).

This is the second edition of the event, which was held for the first time in March 2023 and was attended by more than 100 people. “In recent years, the demand for upland rice seeds has increased significantly, due to rising prices and greater demand for food from government programs aimed at family farming. Therefore, we decided to hold the meeting again, to expand knowledge about culture and present new technologies”, reports Epamig researcher and one of the meeting organizers, Janine Guedes.

Planting rice interspersed with coffee

At the meeting, Janine will lead the presentation “Rice Planting in Coffee Streets”, inside Ciência Móvel, a minibus adapted with a mini laboratory that takes Epamig technologies to events held throughout the state. According to her, the “Melhor Arroz” program conducted experiments on intercropped planting of rice and coffee, in 2023, which generated very positive results.

“This work was one of the consequences of last year’s Technological Meeting. A coffee producer approached us during the event and proposed a partnership. So, we went to his property and planted it”, says Janine. “Not only did he harvest the rice, he also managed to sell the food to a local school, through the National School Feeding Program (PNAE). Furthermore, he told us that the strategy helped to conserve the property’s soil”, adds the researcher. 

Based on this experience, Epamig implemented, throughout 2023, 16 new Demonstration Units (UD) spread across the regions of Minas Gerais, where rice was planted interspersed with coffee and, in one of them, with apple cultivation. These experimental crops are part of a larger project, financed by the Minas Gerais State Research Support Foundation (Fapemig), in which a total of 38 UDs were implemented on rural properties in Minas Gerais.

“In my presentation I will talk about possibilities for planting rice with other crops, mainly coffee, that are grown in wide corridors that do not generate shading. It is a practice that provides the producer with a new source of income and also helps maintain soil conditions”, explains Janine.

New highland rice cultivar will be presented

The event also marks the pre-launch of the new upland rice cultivar CMG 1590 (provisional name). The material was developed and tested over 10 years by the Rice Genetic Improvement Program, a partnership between Epamig, UFLA and Embrapa. “It is a highly recommended cultivar for all regions of Minas Gerais, especially for family farming. Its main characteristic is its high yield, which makes it an extremely productive material. It also has great resistance to water deficit and rice blast, a rice pest.”, details Janine Guedes.

According to her, the cultivar is going through the last stage of registration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA), but has already been released for seed production and pre-launch. “After its official launch, which should take place in the second half of 2024, we will implement several Demonstration Units in crops with different levels of technology, to evaluate, for example, their performance under pivot irrigation”, concludes the researcher.