Soybean breeding evolution in Brazil:

Brazil is the second largest soybean production and first exporter in the world. Such position was build based on a consistent evolution of yield increase and a lot of efforts coming from plant breeding. The tropical conditions we in the country are very favorable to the presence of a lot of plant diseases and insects. In addition the expansion of soybean crop in Brazil occurred in the “Cerrado” (savanna) areas where we need varieties for low latitudes. More recently the decision of farmers to grow corn after the harvest of soybean, (corn second crop) created a demand for early varieties. This required again a new approach of soybean research. If some of the problems increase, at same time we have to recognize that new and modern research tools become available which brought a tremendous help for breeding.

On the last 35 years, period in which we had the big expansion of soybean in Brazil the private seed companies, cooperatives and public entities were able to support with the appropriated cultivars the needs of farmers. The combination between breeding and biotech should help to assure to the farmers adequate cultivars for the future. Government projection for 2020 is that soybean area will expand up to 26.8 millions hectares which are almost 25% bigger than the area at this time.

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