Experience with descriptors, registration and protection of vegetable cultivars: Eggplant as a case study

Abstract

The Registro Nacional de Cultivares [RNC (National Register of Cultivars)] and the Serviço Nacional de Proteção de Cultivares [SNPC (National Service for Cultivar Protection)] were established by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (MAPA) in 1997. The registration of a cultivar in the RNC allows the production, processing and commercialization of seeds in the country. The right of commercial exploitation, assured by the protection of a cultivar in the SNPC, allows the allocation of resources to public and private breeding programs, and the subsequent launching of new cultivars. The authors’ experience with the theme and its relevance to the public and private sectors provided the base for this article, thus sharing the elements considered relevant in the process of establishing descriptors, registration and protection of cultivars in Brazil, using the eggplant as the focus of the case study. Due to the lack of guidelines for protection of Solanum melongena cultivars in Brazil, 43 eggplant descriptors of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) were evaluated. For the establishment of descriptors, registration and protection of cultivars, relevant factors included: knowledge of the genetic variability of a collection of germplasm and of plant morphology; experience in morphological characterization, assessment of descriptors and crop management in different climatic environments; the tropicalization of descriptors; the time needed for the establishment of descriptors, their approval and adoption by MAPA; the knowledge and compliance with the bureaucratic demands for the effectiveness of the processes; the mobilization of interdisciplinary talents and the support of public research to assist MAPA in the validation of the descriptors.