Clonal seed viability associated with nutrition, in the formation of rootstocks rubber

• Grant number: 12/22163-6
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2013
• End date: August 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Principal Investigator: Adriana Novais Martins
• Grantee: Adriana Novais Martins
• Host Institution: APTA Regional. Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios (APTA). Secretaria de Agricultura e Abastecimento (São Paulo - Estado). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Eduardo Suguino ; Erivaldo José Scaloppi Junior ; Paulo de Souza Gonçalves

Abstract

With technological advances, the demand for natural rubber has increased significantly in recent years. The rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg.) is an alternative sustainable agricultural production in this strategic raw material, generating significant income for farmers. Moreover, the cultivation of rubber aggregates social benefits with job creation, and ecological benefits, since it is a perennial crop, rustic and carbon potential kidnapper. However, the expansion of rubber cultivation in Brazil runs into old technologies and scarce, raising the need for investment in generation of modern technology, adapted to the growing conditions present. The process of production of polybag budwoods is essential for culture expansion, since of high quality buddings guarantee significant portion of success in rubber crop. This project provides for the establishment of a new protocol for obtaining and evaluating clonal seeds which, combined with a proper nutritional management, increase the efficiency of the training process of rubber polybag buddings, reducing the time to engraftment. The project includes the installation and evaluation of three tests, the first of which will evaluate the viability of clonal seeds, adapting the Tetrazolium Test for culture. The second one aims at identifying genetic materials with high potential for use as rootstocks and the third one establishes nutrient management in order to accelerate the development of the rootstock, reducing the time to engraftment and formation of polybag budwood. (AU)