The QUALIVEG Project - Implementation and Monitoring of Quality Systems in Vegetable Genetic Banks aims to map the current conditions of five of the 147 genetic banks of plants of importance for agriculture and food maintained by the Company throughout the National Territory, with the objective of adapting International quality standards.

Embrapa's intention in the long term is to map and adapt all its plant collections to international quality standards, but faced with the impossibility of doing so at one time, the following Active Germplasm Banks (BAGs) were defined as pilots:

Implementation of the quality system: the five pilots

- Pineapple and Cassava Embrapa Cassava and Fruit Growing (Cruz das Almas, BA);
- Caju (Embrapa Agroindústria Tropical, Fortaleza, CE);
- Rice and Beans (Embrapa Rice and Beans (Santo Antônio de Goiás, GO) and
- Capsicum - peppers and peppers (Embrapa Hortaliças, DF).
- Embrapa Genetic Bank (Brasília, DF) - works as a kind of backup of the vegetal stock conserved by the Company, since it houses the backup copies of all the Active Vegetable Banks. It congregates three forms of conservation: in cold chambers at 20ºC below zero (seeds), cryopreservation in cylinders of liquid nitrogen at 196ºC below zero and in vitro (test tubes) for those species whose seeds do not withstand low temperatures and humidity.

Step one: Define enterprise quality requirements

There are no standards for quality management in plant collections in Brazil, and therefore the QUALIVEG Project will have to select the requirements based on international standards (ISO / IEC 17025, ABNT ISO GUIA 34 and Brazilian Version of the OECD for Good Practices for Biological Resource Centers) to define a unique and international quality standard to be adopted.

Corporate quality requirements are being defined in partnership with curators of plant collections.

Quality management adds value to genetic banks

The implementation of quality management in Embrapa's plant collections will standardize activities related to genetic resources, giving traceability to results and adding value to these sites. This process involves implementing the following requirements:

-Documents (external and internal, with emphasis on the standardization of procedures);
-Records (printed and electronic);
- Personnel (training and supervision of employees and employees);
- Field and laboratory facilities (adjustments, maintenance and standardization);
-Environmental conditions (adjustments and controls)
-Equipment and measurement traceability (maintenance, checks and calibrations).

QUALIVEG Project: publications, training and dissemination for other plant collections

The idea of ​​the QUALIVEG Project is to gather all the requirements and guidelines related to quality management and publish them in booklets that will be available to the teams working in the plant collections. In order to assist them in their daily activities and services.

Training and workshops will also be promoted for the qualification and qualification of employees and employees who carry out activities in these places.

As it can not shelter all of Embrapa's plant collections, one of the purposes of QUALIVEG is to disseminate this information to those who are not being served as a pilot.

Project will also ensure quality to the services provided by Embrapa Plant Quarantine

Once it is inaugurated in Brasília, DF, Embrapa Quarentena Vegetal will also be part of the QUALIVEG Project's scope of action. Comprised of eight laboratories and five support areas, it is one of the quarantine stations accredited by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA) to carry out the analysis of all the plants that enter the country for research purposes. The objective is to protect Brazilian agriculture from the entry of exotic pests (which still do not occur in the country), which can cause billions of dollars of damage to the national economy.