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TOMATO BREEDING IN MILD WINTER TROPICAL AREAS OF BRAZIL GOALS AND TRENDS
Production has increased steadily in the past 15 years, especially due to increased consumption of processed tomato products.
Total production in the country has ranged from 1.5 to 1.8 million tons per year in the past few years.
The main producing states are São Paulo (ca. 50% of total) and Pernambuco (ca. 11% of total), with other important areas in Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul.
Since they are cultivated in a variety of latitudes and altitudes, tomatoes can be grown in Brazil all year long.
Production is concentrated, however, in regions with mild winters where frost expectation is low.
Summer production poses more severe disease and fruit set problems, and is practised mostly in altitudes of 800 m or higher.
The main tomato season for the country as a whole goes from June to August – September (winter in the Southern Hemisphere).
Considerable efforts are being dedicated to tomato breeding in several parts of the country.
Disease resistance has been a main goal of several breeding programs.
Fresh market cultivars with resistance to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (race 1), Stemphylium solani, potato virus Y (PVY), Verticillium albo-atrum and/or Corynebacterium michiganensis were released in recent years.
Processing tomato cultivars with resistance to Fusarium (race 1), Verticillium, root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne incognita and M. javanica), and fruit set under high temperatures are also available.
A series of cultivars with multiple disease resistance (including processing tomatoes with firm fruit and resistance to both Fusarium (race 2) and root-knot nematodes) will be release shortly.