STATE OF THE BRAZIL’S PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES SECOND NATIONAL REPORT Conservation and Sustainable Utilization for Food and Agriculture Organized by: Arthur da Silva Mariante Maria José Amstalden Sampaio Maria Cléria Valadares Inglis Brasilia – DF 2009 1 AUTHORS Chapter 1 Eduardo Lleras Perez Arthur da Silva Mariante Chapter 2 Luciano Lourenço Nass Bruno Teles Walter Lidio Coradin Ana Yamaguishi Ciampi Chapter 3 Fábio Oliveira Freitas Marcelo Brilhante Medeiros Chapter 4 José Francisco Montenegro Valls Renato Ferraz de Arruda Veiga Rosa Lia Barbieri Semíramis Rabelo Ramalho Ramos Patrícia Goulart Bustamante Chapter 5 Ana Chistina Sagebin Albuquerque Luciano Lourenço Nass Chapter 6 Arthur da Silva Mariante Tomaz Gelson Pezzini Chapter 7 Maria Cléria Valadares Inglis Maurício Antônio Lopes Arthur da Silva Mariante José Manoel Cabral de Souza Dias Chapter 8 Maria José Amstalden Sampaio Simone Nunes Ferreira Chapter 9 Maurício Antônio Lopes 2 PRESENTATION It is my pleasure to present the second National Report on the State of Brazil’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, a document that displays the country’s progress in relevant areas following the first report in 1996. The present report is a step toward the preparation of the Second Report on the State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture . Furthermore, it will provide a basis for establishing national, regional and global priorities, will help design strategic policies toward the implementation of priority actions for agricultural development, and will foster conservation and sustainable use of native and exotic biodiversity resources. As a party to both the Convention on Biological Diversity and the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Brazil considers activities related to genetic resources as priorities. The country has invested in infrastructure enhancement, capacity building and transfer of technologies that can help improve food security, not only for its population but for that of other developing countries as well. This document offers a summary of the main activities conducted by different Brazilian institutions with the goal to enrich genetic variability, as well as to ensure conservation, evaluation, characterization and documentation of plant genetic resources. It is the result of a joint effort by dozens of Embrapa researchers, technical personnel of state- level research companies, professors, and representatives of the ministries of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (Ministério of Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento – MAPA), of Environment (Ministério do Meio Ambiente – MMA) and of Foreign Affairs (Ministério de Relações Exteriores – MRE). We are pleased to express our gratitude to all those who have participated in its elaboration. Moreover, we would like to thank FAO for the support provided during the development of this work. 3 Reynold Stephanes Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply 4 NATIONAL CONSULTIVE COMMITTEE Chairman: Helinton José Rocha – MAPA Executive Secretary: Arthur da Silva Mariante – Embrapa Genetic Resources and Biotechnology INSTITUTION CONSULTANTS’ NAMES Embrapa Genetic Resources and Biotechnology Clara de Oliveira Goedert Eduardo Lleras Perez Fábio Oliveira Freitas Ivo Sias Costa José Francisco Montenegro Valls Juliano Gomes de Pádua Marcelo Brilhante Medeiros Patrícia Goulart Bustamante Embrapa Headquarters Ana Christina Sagebin Albuquerque Maria José Amstalden Sampaio Embrapa Temperate Climate Rosa Lia Barbieri Embrapa Coastal Tablelands Semíramis Rabelo Ramalho Ramos Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Marcus Vinícius de Miranda Martins Food Supply Paulo de Assunção Roberto Lorena de Barros Santos Márcio Antônio Teixeira Mazzaro Tomaz Gelson Pezzini Leontino Rezende Taveira Álvaro Antônio Nunes Viana José Neumar Francelino Ministry of Environment Lidio Coradin 5 Semi-Arid Rural Federal University Manuel Abílio Queiroz Campinas Agronomical Institute Renato Ferraz de Arruda Veiga Amazon National Research Institute Charles Roland Clement 6 PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS Agência Paulista de Tecnologia do Agronegócio – APTA Articulação Nacional da Agroecologia – ANA Assessoria e Serviços a Proteção em Agricultura Alternativa – ASPTA Centro Pluridisciplinar de Pesquisas Químicas, Biológicas e Agrícolas – CPQBA Comissão Executiva do Plano da Lavoura Cacaueira - CEPLAC/ CEPEC- Embrapa Agroindústria Tropical – CNPAT Embrapa Algodão – CNPA Embrapa Clima Temperado – CPACT Embrapa Florestas – CNPF Embrapa Mandioca e Fruticultura Tropical – CNPMF Embrapa Meio Norte – CPAMN Embrapa Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia – CENARGEN Embrapa Soja – CNPSo Embrapa Trigo – CNPT Embrapa Uva e Vinho – CNPUV Empresa Baiana de Desenvolvimento Agrícola – EBDA Empresa Estadual de Pesquisa Agropecuária da Paraíba – EMEPA Empresa Pernambucana de Pesquisa Agropecuária – IPA Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária e Extensão Rural de Santa Catarina – EPAGRI Instituto Agronômico – IAC Instituto de Botânica de São Paulo – IBOT Instituto Agronômico do Paraná – IAPAR Instituto Nacional de Pesquisa da Amazônia – INPA Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento – MAPA Ministério do Meio Ambiente – MMA Universidade Estadual de Campinas – UNICAMP Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana – UEFS Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense – UENF Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz – UESC Universidade Federal de Alagoas – UFAL Universidade Federal da Bahia – UFBA Universidade Federal do Ceará – UFC Universidade Federal do Piauí – UFPI Universidade Federal do Recôncavo Baiano – UFRB Universidade Federal de Sergipe – UFSE Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco – UFRPE Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Árido – UFERSA 7 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Brazilian territory has continental dimensions, ranking third in extension in the Americas. Due to its vast surface area and geographical location, Brazil is extremely rich in plant and animal varieties (biodiversity), from which derive natural resources that are utilized to build the country’s economy. The high temperatures prevailing in the largest part of its territory are appropriate for virtually all crops. Brazil has a broadly diversified climate, in the range of tropical and subtropical climates and their variations; this is due to factors such as geographical position, oceanicity, continentality, altitude, relief, and air-mass dynamics. The diversity of species in the Brazilian flora stems from the edaphoclimatic peculiarities that cause the formation of vegetation types in six different biomes: Amazonian, the Cerrado, Caatinga, Atlantic Forest, Pampas (Southern fields) and Pantanal. The country accounts for three fifths of the South American industrial production and participates in several economic blocks. Its scientific and technological development, combined with a diversified and dynamic industrial park, attracts foreign businesses. In the current decade, direct investment has averaged about US$ 20 billion/year, compared to US$ 2 billion/year in the previous decade. Brazil trades regularly with over one hundred countries; in excess of 74% of its exports are manufactured or semimanufactured goods. The country’s main trade partners are: European Union (26% of the balance); USA (24%); MERCOSUR and Latin America (21%) and Asia (12%). One of the most dynamic sectors in these exchanges is agribusiness, which has kept Brazil among the countries with higher rural productivity for the last two decades. Over the last three decades, the leap in the Brazilian agricultural production is unparalleled by any other country’s. More than production itself, yield and quality of crops has reached, and in some cases surpassed, those of other top food producing nations in the world. Besides macroeconomical, sectorial, and technology policies, agribusiness organization has been a crucial success factor. Brazil is one of the world leaders in the production and export of several agricultural products. It’s the first producer and exporter of coffee, sugar and orange juice. Furthermore, it leads in 2008 the ranking of external sales of soybean, beef, chicken meat, tobacco, leather, and leather shoes. Brazil has about 44,000-50,000 species of vascular plants, which represents approximately 18% of the global plant diversity. Nevertheless, Brazilians agriculture and food security are, to a great extent, completely dependent on the introduction of genetic resources from other countries. Without the growing, systematic importation of genetic resources, virtually none of the Brazilian agricultural activities –quite diversified due to the country's own ecological variety- would be as important as they are today. This dependence will persist, because research aiming at developing new plant varieties requires genetic material with ecological adaptation characteristics -such as, for instance, resistance to local pests and diseases, adaptation to environmental adverse conditions that can derive from climate changes, and adaptation to different Brazilian soils- in order to meet the growing demand for food, fibers and energy production. Several Brazilian native species have been used as human food. Though they are used to a much lesser extent than exotic species, they are regionally and locally very important. The better-known among them are: cassava, pineapple, peanuts, cocoa, cashew, cupuassu, passion fruit, Brazil nuts, guarana, Myrciaria jaboticaba; this is also the case of some palm tree species such as Euterpe oleracea (assai), up until recently only consumed