Embrapa launches GMO cultivars to control plagues and weeds affecting soybean crops
Date:08-12-2016
Embrapa has launched for the 2016/2017 crop season GMO soybean cultivars under the Intacta (BRS 9180 IPRO) and Cultivance (BRS 8482 CV) technologies, combining the most advanced solutions for the control of specific plagues and weeds in each crop that is resistant to glyphosate.
The varieties promise savings and high productivity, exceeding 60 bags per hectare (superior to the national average of 50 bags per hectare).
The materials were developed in partnership with the Cerrado Foundation and the Bahia Foundation, entities formed by seed companies in the soybean-producing regions of the Cerrado. While the cultivar Intacta is adapted to the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piaui, and Bahia (Matopiba) and can also be applied in Roraima and some regions of Paraná, Cultivance is indicated for use in Mato Grosso, Goiás, the northeast of Minas Gerais, and the Federal District.
The cultivar Intacta is distinctive for its rusticity and high productivity potential (more than 70 bags per hectare), with the added benefits of Bt and RR proteins for the control of caterpillars that attack the soybean crop and to combat glyphosate resistance. It favors the management of weeds and uses a radicular system that exploits the soil profile to seek nutrients and water in periods of extreme heat.
Besides aggregating tolerance of the herbicide glyphosate, indicating the advantage of weed management, the Intacta cultivar expresses the Bt protein, offering protection against the major soybean caterpillars: the velvetbean caterpillar (Anticarsia gemmatalis), the soybean looper (Chrysodeixis includens), the tobacco budworm (Heliothis virescens), tortrix moth caterpillars (especially Crocidosema aporema), and the corn earworm (Helicoverpa zea) and cotton bollworm (H. armigera).
The varieties of soybeans produced by the Cultivance Production System, a partnership between Embrapa and BASF, came to market as an option to help farmers manage weeds that are resistant to glyphosate. With the technology, which is fully developed in Brazil, the producer can rotate herbicides with different action mechanisms for the management of resistant weeds.
The first Cultivance variety for the Cerrado, the BRS 8482 CV, presents the potential for high productivity (4,000 kilograms per hectare or more than 66 bags per hectare) and efficiency in controlling weeds that are resistant to glyphosate, such as sourgrass (Digitaria insularis) and Argentine fleabane (Conyza bonariensis), both of which are highly invasive in soybean crops. It also combats nematodes such as Meloidogyne incognita and M. javanica.