Guarana & Brasil

Today to topic I will discuss is about organic agriculture To discuss this topic, first we need to know what is an organic agriculture. And the definition is: An ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain, or enhance ecological harmony. (National Organic Program, NOP) Most of the guaraná plantations are monocultures and the plants are treated under a conventional agricultural system, with the use of chemicals fertilisers and pesticides. If a farmer wants to change his agricultural practices and become more environmental friendly, some things needs to change on the system, the first thing is working with biodiversity. Instead only plant guaraná, the farmer should plant more diversity as sweet potato, coffee and nut trees all together at the same area, in this way the biodiversity will increas...

The topic that will be discussed today it is about harvesting and storage of guarana. To know that the fruits are ready to be harvested, just observe the fruits. When the fruits are ripe they partially open, leaving one to three dark brown seeds with the lower half covered by a thick white aryl. Harvesting is carried out at this stage when 2/3 of the bunches show the fruits open, so that the bark does not open fully, avoiding the fall of the seeds ( this happens if the fruits are harvested too late) http://www.sebrae.com.br/sites/PortalSebrae/artigos/o-cultivo-e-o-mercado-do-guarana,969a9e665b182410VgnVCM100000b272010aRCRD The harvest of the guarana is done by human labor even in large scale of production. http://www.sebrae.com.br/sites/PortalSebrae/artigos/o-cultivo-e-o-mercado-do-guarana,969a9e665b182410VgnVCM100000b272010aRCRD The guarana fruit should be pulped and roasted for commercialization. After harvest, the fruits are packed in bags or stacked in a clean pla...

The topic today it is about Crop rotation, tillage and crop establishment. As guarana is a perennial plant, crop rotation is not a suitable option. Most of the guarana plantations are monocultures  but polyculture and intercropping are good options for this plant, adding sweet potato between the lines of guarana plants showed good results, the farmer can get faster profit from the sweet potatoes, the sweet potatoes also protects the soil against erosion and they are also drought resistant. https://www.embrapa.br/amazonia-ocidental/busca-de-publicacoes/-/publicacao/665230/cultivo-de-batata-doce-nas-entrelinhas-do-guarana Not a lot of researches and different experiments were done about the subject of polyculture and intercropping for guarana. But the one that was done with the sweet potato showed good results, so it means that the guarana plant can work in cooperation with other plants and more investigation about this topic need to be done, once the soil and the farmers...

Today the topic will be about diseases and insects that can have interference in the guarana production.     The main disease for the guarana plants is the  anthracnose ,   caused by the fungus  Colletotrichum   guaranicola , it is one of the main problems for the low production of guarana in the Amazon.   https://www.acritica.com/channels/governo/news/embrapa-lanca-novas-plantas-de-guarana-resistentes-a-doencas-e-de-alta-produtividade-comercial   A nthracnose   The main insect that  attacks  the guarana plants is the  Liothrips   adisi .   This species has only been founded in  guaraná  plants.    https://www.embrapa.br/busca-de-publicacoes/-/publicacao/665200/observacoes-sobre-o-tripes-liothrips-adisi-strassen-1977-do-guaranazeiro   Liothrips   adisi The  insects, in order  to feed,  suck the plant sap, which causes morphophysiological changes in the ...

Today the topic that we will discuss is weeds! Weeds are valueless plant growing wild, it grows together with the desired cultivate plant and in the worst cases, if do not take the right precautions it can become a competitor of the plant that you want to cultivate http://www.dictionary.com/browse/weed For our case that is Guarana, a scientific study done in the amazon state collected    14.707 samples of weeds,  among them were detected 40 families and  87 species.  70 of the species were Dicotyledons representing 80,5% of the weeds,    13 Monocotyledons (15%) and 4 Pteridophytes (4,5%). Panicum pilosum, Scleria melaleuca, Panicum laxum, Spermacoce capitata, Selaginella asperula  and  Homolepis aturensis  are the main weeds  found during the study. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-83582004000300004 Panicum pilosum     Panicum  laxum A crop infestation by weeds can ...

Today the topic we will discuss is soil! Such as an important factor for plants. people and for the world.                                             The soil of Amazon rainforest is the deepest in the world,  it have been formed from the underlying rock and rain. Some places of the Amazon River Basin, the soil is white and sandy. How is a rainforest, the rain has a lot of impact there, the soils are often washed out, so large amounts of nutrients and minerals are being removed from the subsoil, due to it, most of the soils are lacking many of the fundamental nutrients needed by the above ground vegetation. Composed by a thin topsoil, made up mainly of decaying vegetable and animals, what provide a high amount of organic matter. http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/amazon/about_the_amazon/ecosystems_amazon/rainforests/ http://www.soil-net.com/dev/pag...