Cereal such as wheat, rice, corn, maize, oats, sorghum, millets, triticale, and rye make up the base of human and animal foods and feeds, respectively. Many of these species contribute significantly to the sustainability of agricultural production systems in Brazil, generating jobs and boosting the country's economy. Collectively, these cultures add up to 19 millions of cultivated hectares and 47 million tons of produced grains, which is almost half of the country's total grain production. Howev

Status: Completed     Start date: Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2009

Embrapa invests in the conservation of native strains of microorganisms, which can be used by the scientific community in several research programs, ranging from diagnosis, treatment of diseases and production of vaccines for human and animal application to reducing the environmental impact of Productive processes and the generation of renewable energy.

In this perspective, microbial cultures are being continuously studied for the formation of a database of "active" components and thei ...

Status: Completed     Start date: Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2008

Brazilian native fruit species are excellent generators of income and job opportunities to family farmers and micro-entrepreneurs especially from the Northern and Northeastern regions of Brazil. Species such as the Platonia insignis, Myrciaria dubia, Byrsonima crassifolia and the Spondia mombin L. have been frequently cited as economically promising in the field of family farming, due to the myriad of business possibilities linked to the ever increasing demand of

Status: Completed     Start date: Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2008

Germplasm banks have as their main purpose to get together in one place part of the genetic variability (germplasm), in order to prevent the loss of genes or gene combinations (genetic erosion), thus ensuring a broad genetic basis for research programs. Germplasm banks are usually made up of local races (ethnovarieties), improved varieties and wild species of the same genus. And because they bring together genetic constitutions of different origins and different breeding levels, they can be grea

Status: Completed     Start date: Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2009

Genetic Vegetable resources, globally, involve a number of around 300,000 identified species, of which 30,000 are edible and only 30 consist of foods that feed the world's population. However, from this total, only three species provide 50% of proteins necessary in a regular diet (rice, wheat and corn). This situation has been stimulating a great number of researchers in the quest to increase the number of species dedicated to feed the population. Brazil is considered the world's greatest source

Status: Completed     Start date: Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2009

With 200 million head, Brazil is the largest world producer of cattle. However, national beef cattle farming is characterized by low productivity and a large variation in beef quality. This second aspect can be justified by the large Zebu fraction found in the genetic base of our herds. Zebu breeds normally present less soft beef with lower marbling when compared with taurine breeds, making the appraisal of this meat difficult in international markets. Therefore, the development of genotypes tha

Status: Completed     Start date: Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2010

Brazil has several breeds of domestic animals that have been developed from breeds brought by Portuguese colonists at the time of discovery. Over the centuries, these breeds have been subjected to natural selection in environments in which they live to the point of presenting specific characteristics to adapt to these conditions. They are known as “creole", "local" or "naturalized".

Currently, many of these breeds are endangered of extinction because over the centuries, they have

Status: Completed     Start date: Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2009

The growing demand for a sustainable energy matrix and the need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels make the energy obtained from biomass a prominent option. The major uses of biomass as energetic input are the production of thermal energy (direct combustion, charcoal and residues), production of mechanic energy (alcohol and bio-oils), production of electricity (through combustion, gasification or gas burning), and production of other components of the so called green chemistry (bioproducts and

Status: Completed     Start date: Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2014

This project aims at the preventive development of genetic stocks resistant to quarantine organisms (pests and diseases that do not yet exist in Brazil) of high risk for Brazilian agriculture in order to reduce the economic, social and environmental impact of their eventual entry into the country. A program of preventive genetic improvement depends on partnership with research institutions from other countries so that quarantine organisms can be studied safely. This project is based on an establ

Status: Completed     Start date: Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2015

Ecological alternatives may contribute to the attainment of sustainability of productive family units through the balanced use of natural resources in the Amazon. Among these viable alternatives, stand out in the Amazon the initiatives of land preparation without the use of fire, such as the Tipitamba Project, the Roça without Fires Project, Agroforest Systems and agroecological alternatives practiced by the region's farmers. The availability of knowledge and practices through the training of en ...

Status: Completed     Start date: Tue Mar 01 00:00:00 GMT-03:00 2011