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In Fazenda Tamanduá’s experimental fields there are plants of various
origins, which makes it possible to observe their most defining
characteristics, such as growth, size, production, resistance to pests
and diseases, besides other characteristics.
Departing from what has been the most common practice (mass
selection), which consists of obtaining seeds for commercial seedlings
from previously selected plants, at Fazenda Tamanduá the genetic
improvement work consists of obtaining pure lineages from distinct
genotypes for future hybridization.
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After the conclusion of the purification process, cross-fertilization
between the pure lineages will be carried out, in order to combine
those characteristics that will be necessary according to each region,
with its soil type and climate conditions. From these
cross-fertilizations, varieties with well defined properties, in
accordance with the most diverse marketing requirements, will be
obtained.
The cross-fertilization of these lineages will be carried out in
specific fields, planted with trees of two different lineages. One of
the lineages will be emasculated (the male sexual organ is removed),
and only the fruit of such emasculated plants, which will be
fertilized by the lineage from which the male reproductive organs were
not removed, will be harvested. As a result, it will be possible to
obtain seeds in a controlled manner from a single male parent plant
and a single female parent plant, which will generate what is called
hybrids, which combine the positive characteristics of both the
maternal and the paternal parts of each plant.
These cross-fertilization fields have to be at a minimum distance from
each other, in order to avoid pollen exchange between the fields due
to the wind and insects, which would jeopardize the process. In
conclusion, the genetic improvement process is long and methodical,
requiring a great deal of patience and dedication, and especially
attention to detail, so as not to compromise the work of a whole year
or more.
Although there are other centers developing work with the physic nut
in several parts of Brazil and the world, as far as we know, the
Fazenda Tamanduá Institute’s selection strategy is breaking new ground
in the production of hybrid varieties. |
