CONTRIBUTION OF EMBRAPA RICE CULTIVARS IN THE PRODUCTION OF FLOODED RICE IN THE TOCANTINS STATE

Abstract

The purpose of this scientific note is to report the contribution of Embrapa cultivars to the production of rice in Tocantins. Rice cultivars are technologies of primary importance in the production and must be considered in the planning of planting crops by Tocantins farmers. It takes years of research since the initial plants crosses, evaluations and selection of strains to obtain a material with the desirable genetic and phenotypic characteristics in a developed rice cultivar. The seed of a cultivar developed by Embrapa breeding program contains importants characteristics and factors such as genetic and physical purity, physiological and phytosanitary qualities. Genetic purity guarantees the absence of mixtures of other cultivars in the lot of seed, tolerating to diseases, uniformity of plants, better quality of grains and greater productive potential. Physical purity guarantees the absence of impurities, such as soil particles, plant debris, stones, damaged seeds, weed seeds and other species. Physiological quality is the ability of seeds to generate healthy plants, with greater vigor and germination. Phytosanitary quality, on the other hand, guarantees the use of seeds free of disease-causing microorganisms. As main contributions of Embrapa rice cultivars to production in Tocantins are an increase of 30% in productivity in the last 10 years, improvement of quality of grains yield greater than 60% and tolerance to disease with reduction of 50% in the application of phytosanitary products.