Technologies to increase wheat production in the Cerrado

The area available to produce wheat in the Cerrado is vast and so is the demand from the industry. In Minas Gerais, around 83,5 thousand ha were sown this harvest. According to the State Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (SEAPA-MG), the area grew 27 times in the period between 1997 and 2017 in the State, with a projection for the sowing of 232 thousand ha of wheat in 2027. Production in these two decades went from 14 thousand tons to 225 thousand tons. 

This promising market was the theme of the 3rd Wheat Meeting, last Friday (12), at the Irmãos Bola farm, in São Basílio, Uberaba (MG). The event was held by Biotrigo Genética, Coopadap - Cooperativa Agropecuária do Alto Paranaíba and the reseller Sólida. Around 100 people participated, including wheat producers in the region, agronomists, recommenders and mills. Biotrigo presented the TBIO Aton cultivar, with high production potential, baking quality, greater resistance to Blast on the cob and with a significant difference in the leaves when compared to local controls. The Meeting's themes also included advances in research, technologies adapted for the Cerrado and how the wheat production chain faced the problems caused by the complex of diseases installed in wheat crops during this harvest. 

Advantages of wheat 

The agronomist and commercial supervisor of Biotrigo for Paraná, São Paulo and Cerrado, Deodato Matias Junior, highlighted the advantages of planting wheat in the region's agricultural system. “Wheat produces excellent soil cover, which clearly reduces spending on herbicides to control weeds for summer crops, in addition to conserving soil moisture in periods of drought and reducing the population of some nematode species. This entire set of benefits has a direct impact on the productivity and profitability of the system, especially generating benefits in soybean production. In years with rainfall within the historical average, the adoption of cultivars moderately resistant to blast still requires low investment in fungicides”. Another advantage, according to him, is that grain filling and maturation occur in the dry period, normally presenting a reduced incidence of mycotoxins and fewer problems with pre-harvest germination, generating good industrial quality and promoting greater production liquidity when compared to other wheat producing regions.

Regarding the market, Junior commented on the high demand for wheat by the industry in the Central region of the country and the potential of the Cerrado to supply the domestic market with the crop. He said that with adapted technologies and greater productivity potential, it becomes more economical to produce wheat in the region given the lower logistical costs to the largest consumption centers, located in the Southeast. “A big advantage is that wheat in the region is harvested in the Brazilian and Argentine off-season, finding a buyer market with more competitive prices. The farmer, the mills win by having quality raw materials at the door of their industries and the end consumer”, he highlighted.

How research aimed at the Cerrado takes place

The main limitation to wheat growth in the region has been wheat blast, a disease caused by a fungus that attacks the cob, resulting in a drop in yield due to deformed grains and low specific weight. This harvest, many crops were damaged by the disease. Biotrigo breeder, André Schönhofen, responsible for the breeding program in the Cerrado, commented on the advances in research aimed at producing technologies for the region and the importance of choosing materials with resistance to diseases, including the TBIO Aton cultivar. “Biotrigo believes in the growth of wheat cultivation in the Cerrado and that is why it has significantly expanded its efforts and investments to develop cultivars adapted to the region. In this harvest, where many crops were lost after the strong incidence of Brusone, TBIO Aton stood out in the field and showed a great difference in health and robustness”, he explained.

Cerrado is the newest of Biotrigo's four breeding programs, which involve field testing of thousands of materials, disease resistance assessments and industrial quality analyses. “The work involves the evaluation of segregating populations in a regionalized manner, facilitating selection in favor of greater health and robustness specific to the Cerrado, contributing to the stability of grain yield and industrial quality. We also apply molecular biology tools such as the monitoring and introgression of genes that have a major effect on drought tolerance and blast reaction, in addition to the artificial generation of genetic variability in populations. Although cultivars generated in the south of the country have shown excellent agronomic and industrial performance, we believe that the selection of plants in initial generations under Cerrado conditions will tend to yield even more fruits in the coming years”, said the breeder.

In terms of phytopathology, he says, there are evaluations in controlled conditions and in field collections of the extensive germplasm from Biotrigo and foreign partners in search of greater resistance to blast and leaf spots. Parallel to this, extensive industrial quality analyzes are carried out, such as grain size, hectoliter weight (PH), flour color, falling number, gluten strength, dough stability and baking. The approved strains begin to be multiplied in various locations in the Cerrado to generate samples for millers in the region, who issue their opinion and seed multipliers and cooperatives also participate in the final evaluation of the cultivar before it is finally launched in the Cerrado.

New cultivation option

Junior explained that TBIO Aton, presented at the 3rd Wheat Meeting, passed all the tests of the breeding program. “This cultivar is among the elite of the company's germplasm, combining a modern type of plant, with high productive potential, with rusticity of the root system and plant health. Resistance to blast in the cob is similar to that of TBIO Sintonia, but it showed significant improvement in resistance to the same disease in the leaves.” The cultivar has a medium cycle, is resistant to Powdery Mildew and moderately resistant to Leaf Rust. In terms of industrial quality, it meets the quality requirements of the baking industry, as it has an average gluten strength (W value) of 352 x10-4 Joules and an average flour stability of 15,8 minutes. In addition to meeting the demand of mills, TBIO Aton has stood out since it entered the test network, having excellent yields under irrigation, but deserving great prominence when sown dry. “In 2018, Aton delivered a productivity 38% above the most sown control in the region, showing a great advance when we compare its yield with the most sown cultivars in the region. This helps the producer to achieve greater profit margins in especially rainfed environments, where productivity is higher” explains Junior.

The cultivar will be available to producers in the next harvest, with a still reduced seed volume in the first year, but a projection of a progressive increase in volume multiplied in the following years. 

Wheat in Uberaba

These advantages year after year have been absorbed by producers in the region. The growing area and productivity prove producers’ interest in the crop. In the last 5 years, the wheat area has increased by more than 400% in the municipality. According to data from the Uberaba Municipal Agribusiness Secretariat (Sagri), currently 32 producers grow wheat in the city, totaling 5,8 thousand ha, of which 4,5 thousand ha are dryland wheat and another 1,3 thousand ha are irrigated.