TMG holds convention with licensees from all over Brazil

Tropical Melhoramento & Genética (TMG) brought together, in Brasília (DF), last week, companies from all over Brazil that multiply their soybean and cotton seeds. The Licensee Convention aimed to promote a joint meeting between the south and the Brazilian cerrado to align business strategies with new information from TMG's genetic, commercial and institutional improvement work for the coming years. With the presence of almost 200 professionals, the event also featured a lecture by the former coach of the Brazilian Men's and Women's Volleyball Team, Bernardinho, who led the theme Excellence: Achievement and Sustainability.

A national company, focused on genetic improvement of plants in soybean, cotton and corn crops, TMG currently has almost 400 employees who work in 14 Brazilian states. As presented by the CEO, Francisco Soares Neto, the basis of all the work developed has been built, throughout its existence, with strategic partnerships and technical cooperation, now present on practically all continents. Commercial partnerships are concentrated throughout South America and, in Brazil, the company works closely with its licensees, who are the multipliers and sellers of TMG seeds.

 Francisco Soares also highlighted the main improvements and innovations in infrastructure and processes recently carried out in the corporate and technical areas, in line with the company's strategic objectives. “The event represents a great call for licensees and partners to participate in this new phase of TMG”, he describes.

A little of the past was brought to the public and Soares recalled the contribution of TMG's genetic improvement to the increase in planted area and increased productivity of soybeans and cotton in Brazil, as well as in the development of cultivars that effectively put an end to problems such as cancer of the stem, and resistant and/or tolerant to nematodes, Asian soybean rust, ramularia, phytophthora root rot and with tolerance to rain at harvest, which help rural producers to grow in profitability and sustainability.

Important professionals in this work who contribute to Brazilian agriculture, and the company's breeders, were honored during the event. Romeu Kiihl, affectionately called the “father of soy” in Brazil, Arlindo Harada, Leones Alves de Almeida, Cláudio Takeda, Paulo Hugo Aguiar and one of the company's founders, Dario Minoru Hiromoto (in memoriam), all agronomists and specialists in genetic improvement, with a fundamental role in history.

Still in the Research area, managers Alexandre Garcia, Eduardo Kawakami and Anderson Meda showed how TMG's genetic improvement is structured and which technologies are being implemented for the development of new soybean, cotton and corn cultivars that meet the challenges of genetic gain for productivity and resistance to diseases, pests and nematodes, all aligned with strategic objectives.

 “The company has a broad genetic bank, made up of strains with different attributes, such as resistance to diseases, nematodes and pests. Recently, the capacity of the Biotechnology Laboratory was expanded to use molecular markers associated with simple and more complex characteristics, which will help in the development of more productive cultivars using new technologies”, explains Anderson Meda.

One of the big news also detailed for licensees is that TMG is enabling the use of HB4 drought tolerance technology in Brazil, a different line from the herbicide and insect tolerant transgenics, currently offered by multinational companies. “TMG is open to offering farmers all trait solutions available on the market”, highlights Research Manager, Alexandre Garcia. The submission to CTNBio of the dossier for requesting commercial approval for the cultivation of HB4® soybeans was made by TMG at the beginning of June this year.

Another point is that following the innovations available in digital improvement, TMG is inserted in internet of things, automation and artificial intelligence technologies to make research data more accurate and make the most of the information generated. “Today we use drones and image analysis robots”, points out Alexandre.

The Convention also served to inform licensees of the company's new commercial policy, now broader and more consistent, as well as the launches of soybean and cotton cultivars. Options were presented ranging from highly productive cultivars to those that add value with broad cyst resistance, Inox® technology and combinations of resistance with Bt biotechnology.