Contributions of the Instituto Agronômico (IAC) for plant breeding

Abstract

The Instituto Agronômico (IAC) is a public institution that was founded in 1887 and has the mission of generating science and transferring technologies for the agricultural sector. This paper describes the main achievements in plant breeding and the use of IAC's cultivars. The impact in the agribusiness sector is demonstrated by the release of research results, especially in the form of products such as seeds and seedlings of 90 species. Out of these, 955 cultivars were properly described, characterized and made available to farmers (636 of them are registered in the National Cultivar Registration Service). Between 1932 and 2012, IAC released an average of 12 cultivars per year, and in the period of 2003 to 2012, 185 cultivars were registered (one new cultivar every 20 days). The results can be evaluated by the representativeness of IAC in the use, customs and food preferences, among other possible measurements on the economic impact and/or return on investments made in the Institution.