DEVELOPMENT-BRAZIL: Gene Banks Provide Boost to Agriculture

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 20 2002 (IPS) - Brazil’s gene banks have helped fuel a significant increase in productivity in agriculture and forestry in the past few decades, despite financial limitations and increasingly scarce human resources.

The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), a government institute, alone has 163 banks of germoplasm (seeds, cuttings or entire plants) distributed throughout the country, the institution’s coordinator of the management of genetic resources, María Magaly Wetzel, told IPS.

EMBRAPA, which was founded in 1973 and has its headquarters in Brasilia, has 40 specialised research and service units, 29 of which house gene banks.

The Genetic Resources and Biotechnology unit, better known by its original name, the National Centre for Genetic Resources, has its own gene banks and coordinates the rest.

This system “suffices to provide support for the genetic improvements” required by the country’s main crops, like cotton, rice, beans, corn, soybeans and wheat, said Wetzel.

Other traditional agricultural commodities of this South American country of 162 million, like coffee and sugar cane, have gene banks in centres run by state governments, like the Agricultural Institute of Campinas, in the southern state of Sao Paulo, which has come up with several improved varieties of coffee.

Universities and large companies, meanwhile, have smaller gene banks of their own, limited to areas of their particular interest, and often created on the initiative of researchers.

The case of eucalyptus, a genus of Australian trees that have been planted widely in Brazil as the main source of raw material for the local cellulose and paper industry, particularly stands out.

Brazil has one of the most complete genetic collections of eucalyptus in the world, which includes several varieties that have already gone extinct in Australia, Rubens Garlipp, the superintendent of the Brazilian Forestry Society, told IPS.

Companies in the forestry industry have invested heavily in conserving the germoplasm of the tree species that are of the greatest economic interest, like pine trees, especially since the 1970s, said Garlipp.

In association with universities and research centres, forestry companies have set up more than 200 local centres for the conservation and reproduction of seeds around the country, according to the Brazilian Forestry Society.

That has facilitated genetic improvements based on the specific characteristics of climate, water availability, soil, and production in the various regions of the country. It also explains how Brazil has been able to “triple the productivity of its eucalyptus plantations in three decades,” said Garlipp.

Nearly 70 percent of the species preserved in EMBRAPA’s gene banks are exotic, due to the need to serve agriculture and the forestry industry, said Wetzel.

But because of the government’s renewed interest in supporting small family farms, the institution has begun to emphasise the incorporation of native species into the gene banks.

Medicinal plants have also become one of the top priority areas, especially in research centres in the Amazon jungle, where a large part of the country’s – and the world’s – biological diversity is concentrated.

Plants with medicinal properties have an enormous social importance because they serve as both medicine and sources of income for poor communities.

EMBRAPA’s Eastern Amazon unit – located in the northern state of Pará – alone preserves 225 species of medicinal plants growing in the region, Wetzel noted.

Several pharmaceutical companies are also contributing to the work of preserving species by conserving plants whose active principle has not yet been isolated.

In addition, gene banks are beginning to show an interest in the enormous diversity of fruit-bearing, aromatic and insect- repelling plants in the Amazon.

But despite this effort, little has actually been done specifically in favour of preserving biodiversity in Brazil, said Wetzel.

Preserving biological diversity is not the mission of EMBRAPA, which was set up to serve agriculture, she pointed out. However, the loss of variety could hurt future production of a number of species, she added.

That is the case of the mahogany tree, a valuable source of high-quality wood, the logging of which has been banned in Brazil since 1996, although it is still cut down illegally.

Although mahogany is not an endangered species, it is the most outstanding specimens that are sought by illegal loggers, she explained.

At the same time, budget cuts have led to a scarcity of human resources for maintaining and expanding the gene banks, she lamented.

“We need well-trained people. That is why the courses provided by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) – the number of which has declined lately, at least in South America – are essential,” said Wetzel.

The National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology Research (CENARGEN) has links to many similar institutions in other countries, Clara Oliveira Goedert, the institute’s head of research and development, told IPS.

The sharing of genetic material is especially frequent with the United States, whose network of gene banks contains germoplasm from around the world.

Exchanges are also common with other centres in Latin America, as well as Europe, said Goedert, who noted, on the other hand, that there were difficulties with India, a country that she said was largely “closed” to such sharing.

Brazil helps train technicians in genetic resources, in response to heavy demand from other countries in Latin America. However, in some cases, like Cuba, there is an exchange of experiences and of experts with a similar level of expertise, Goedert added.

As part of the EMBRAPA network, CENARGEN also benefits from that institution’s agreement with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), created in 1971 by the World Bank, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and the UN Development Programme (UNDP), to support scientific research in favour of food security.