Native Fruit Tree Improvement in Amazonia: An Overview - Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Tropics: Domestication, Utilization and Commercialization - page 104

Pará (now Embrapa Amazônia Oriental). Work initially concentrated on cacao
and gradually expanded to include minor efforts on numerous native fruits,
including abiu ( Pouteria caimito ), bacuri ( Platonia insignis Mart.), biribá
( Rollinia mucosa Bail.) and cupuaçu ( Theobroma grandiflorum Schumm.)
(Calzavara, 1970), without, however, creating much impact in regional or
national markets. The same institute pioneered studies on açaí-do-Pará
( Euterpe oleracea Mart.) and peach palm ( Bactris gasipaes Kunth), but these
studies also had little impact and the institution suffered from lack of continuity
during the decade before the creation of Embrapa in 1973.
In the 1960s, the Instituto Agronômico da Amazônia Ocidental, Manaus,
Amazonas (now Embrapa Amazônia Ocidental), started working on guaraná
( Paullinia cupana Mart.) as demand grew for its caffeine-rich seed for soft
drinks. This work continued both in Manaus and in Maués, Amazonas, where
the multinational American Beverage Company (AmBev) has its major
Amazonian plantation of this fruit crop. Field trials were organized in Bahia by
the Comissão Executiva do Plano da Lavoura Cacaueira (CEPLAC). Bahia
now produces nearly 80% of the guaraná used in Brazil, although R&D has
increased in Amazonia. Guaraná was chosen as the target for the first Brazilian
Amazonian regional genome network. This project has already determined that
guaraná is a high-level polyploid and is identifying the genes involved in
disease susceptibility and resistance.
In 1975, the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA: National
Research Institute for Amazonia) created a fruit studies group that initially
concentrated on peach palm, cupuaçu, sapota ( Quararibea cordata Vischer),
graviola ( Annona muricata L.), araçá-boi ( Eugenia stipitata McVaugh), camu-
camu ( Myrciaria dubia McVaugh) and cubiu ( Solanum sessiliflorum Dunal)
(Clement et al ., 1997). This group pioneered the idea of creating agroforestry
systems with fruit trees of different stature and shade tolerance, without,
however, making much impact on regional or national markets (van Leeuwen
et al ., 1997). In the mid-1980s, the INPA group collaborated with Embrapa
Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (then the National Centre for Genetic
Resources) and helped create the peach palm germplasm collections in Brazil,
Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru (Clement and Coradin, 1988).
Although the group made a major impact when it identified and imported
spineless peach palm from Peru for heart-of-palm production, the work with
the fruit failed to increase demand in local and regional markets (Clement et
al ., 2004). This group is now working principally on peach palm and camu-
camu and slowly expanding its activities with tucumã ( Astrocaryum tucuma
Mart.).
In the late 1970s, Embrapa Amazonia Oriental expanded its work on fruits
again, concentrating on Brazil nut, cupuaçu, guaraná, bacuri, camu-camu,
peach palm and açaí-do-Pará. During the early 1980s, they collected patauá
( Oenocarpus bataua Mart.) and bacaba ( Oenocarpus bacaba Mart.) with
international support, but the project did not advance beyond the germplasm
collection. More recently they have added uxi ( Endopleura uchi Cuatrecasas).
Embrapa Amazonia Ocidental also expanded their work on fruits beyond
guaraná, concentrating on cupuaçu and camu-camu. Embrapa Acre (Rio