It is in the city of Santo Antônio de Posse, in the interior of São Paulo, that the experimental station of Agristar is located, one of the largest companies in the country in the production and commercialization of vegetable and fruit seeds, where today approximately 1.500 genetic materials are screened per year. .
A new area, with around 240 thousand square meters, has just been attached to the matrix and will allow for greater crop rotation and the implementation of more annual screenings. The goal is that, in 2020, around 150 screenings will be carried out in this season alone, in addition to around 100 more tests in other units, strategically located in the producing regions of Mossoró (RN), Guimarânia (MG) and Ituporanga (SC) .
The area has been prepared since July 2019 under the guidance of the experimental station coordinator, Everton Ichikawa and, currently, the soil is ready to be used for planting trials. The crop groups tested at the headquarters by Agristar's team of experts are: tomatoes and peppers, cucurbits, bulbs and roots, brassicas and hardwoods, green belt and the industrial line.
The varieties tested come from several Agristar breeding programs and partner companies. Through its Product Development team, the best materials are selected for each region and growing season. “The expansion of our experimental station will make it possible to test more materials in the real conditions of this location so that we can bring increasingly productive varieties to rural producers, of high genetic quality and resistant to pests and diseases common to crops”, details Maurício Coutinho, director of sector.
Agristar has invested in recent years in its genetic improvement programs for tropical crops, seeking to develop materials adapted to the different regions of Brazil, with the aim of introducing products to the market that meet the demands of both producers and consumers.
In Guimarânia (MG), the doctor in Genetics and Breeding, André Mattedi, directs research mainly towards new hybrid cultivars of carrots, okra and tomatoes from the Santa Cruz group. “The unit allows us to develop high-tech, exclusive varieties aimed at the Brazilian market, thus meeting the specific needs of the producer. Crosses are carried out between the different strains existing in breeding programs, in order to develop hybrids that contain all the qualities that the market demands, such as productivity, resistance, among other characteristics. This is complex work that takes years before we arrive at a product with the desired specifications”, details Mattedi.
More recently, in 2019, at the Santo Antônio de Posse station (SP), a genetic improvement program focusing on lettuce was created, under the supervision of researcher Carolina Franco. 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. “The first work will be focused on the development of curly and American cultivars 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”, explains Carolina.
To learn more visit www.agristar.com.br or follow the company's social media: Facebook, Instagram e LinkedIn.
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