PROJECT PORTFOLIO

Grains

Research and Innovation for the sustainable development of grain production systems

The Grain Portfolio aims to increase the competitiveness and sustainability of grain production chains at the different Brazilian regions with the development of innovative solutions and contributions.

Intensifying production

The various crops that make up the grain production systems in Brazil are strategic for the development of many production chains, such as the meat one, and also for the generation of currency for foreign trade, for economic and social development, and for environmental conservation of several Brazilian regions. In the 2020/2021 crop year, the area planted with grains in the country was 67.74 million hectares, with a production potential of 276.32 million tons. These numbers are growing every year, with an accentuated increase in productivity, a consequence of the technology use that brings sustainability to this production chain. 

The development of technologies and the incorporation of 4.0 agriculture tools that can be used in the management of grain yield promoting and protecting factors and the development of cultivars that are more adapted to Brazilian soil and climate conditions will be fundamental for the viability of production systems in the big agricultural frontier that includes new areas and also for the intensification of already cultivated and/or underutilized areas. 

The challenge for global and Brazilian agriculture is to produce more without increasing the cultivation area, using less water, fertilizers, and pesticides, which requires the strengthening of research oriented toward the intensification and sustainability of agricultural activities. 

By 2050, the world demand for food is projected to rise by 70% and to double the energy, and it is expected that 80% of this comes from the higher grain yield in arable areas, which have been reducing globally; hence the need to intensify production. 

 

Download the folder for the portfolio as a PDF file in Portuguese

Innovation challenges

  • Expanding the adaptation of rice, corn, pulse crops, sorghum, sesame, peanuts, and soybeans in environments with water and thermal restrictions.
  • Expanding the technical and economic viability of rice, cowpea, sorghum, and corn production in environments with nutritional limitations.
  • Expanding the technical and economic viability of wheat and barley production in the traditional region of cultivation (South) and in tropical areas (Cerrado, Coastal Tablelands, and Semiarid region) of Brazil.
  • Expanding the technical and economic viability of pulse crops, peanuts and sesame production in the Southeast, Midwest, Northeast and North regions.
  • Expanding the technical and economic viability of the soybeans, rice, corn, and sorghum production in plinthosol areas of the Amazon, Caatinga, and Cerrado biomes.
  • Expanding the technical and economic viability of soybeans, rice, corn, sorghum and millet production in areas of recovery of sandy soils and restoration of sugarcane fields.
  • Diversifying grain production mix in Integrated Agricultural  Systems (ICL, ICF, and ICLF systems).
  • Expanding Asian rust control in soybean cropping
  • Expanding the control of insect vectors of diseases (caused by viruses and mollicutes) in bean, cowpea, corn, sorghum and wheat crops.
  • Expanding the sustainable control of phytonematodes, white mold, fusariosis, and root and stem rot in soybean, bean, cowpea, corn, sorghum, and rice crop production systems.
  • Diversifying the grain production mix beyond the soybean/corn succession with the  rice, winter cereal, canola, sesame, peanus, sunflower, millet, pulse, and sorghum production chains
  • Mitigating mycotoxin contamination in wheat, corn, sorghum, soybeans, and beans.
  • Mitigating the damage of water deficit and high temperature during seed/grain formation and excess rain in the harvest on the quality of seeds and soybeans.
  • Reducing soil compaction in no-till farming systems adopted by cotton, rice, beans, corn, sorghum, millet, soybean and wheat crops.
  • Reducing the incidence of weeds, pest insects, and agrochemicals that are resistant to pathogens in grain producing crops.

Portfolio Management Committee

The Portfolio Management Committee works to define innovation challenges and oversee the portfolio of projects.
 

Chairperson:

Executive secretary:

Partnerships and Business

Embrapa's Innovation Model focuses on open innovation, which relies on partnerships since the beginning of each project for the sake of the market insertion of new assets. Find out how to jointly invent with Embrapa technological solutions that add value to business and enable innovation in the agricultural production sector.

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