The Plant Genetic Breeding Laboratory (LMGV) contributes to undergraduate teaching in the Agronomy program, offering courses such as Basic Genetics and Plant Breeding. At the graduate level, it is important to highlight that, beginning in 2004, the LMGV faculty established the Graduate Program in Genetics and Plant Breeding, which offers a comprehensive set of courses designed to support the academic development of the program.
The Graduate Program was initially conceived in 2003 by a working group from LMGV, coordinated by Professor Telma Nair Santana Pereira, who prepared the proposal submitted to CAPES. In 2004, the program was officially approved by CAPES with an initial accreditation score of 4. Over the years, the program consolidated its activities and progressively improved its evaluation score, first reaching score 5 and currently holding score 6 in the CAPES evaluation system, reflecting its international standard of excellence. The program has been responsible for training more than one hundred master’s and doctoral graduates, as well as producing close to one hundred scientific articles per year. It is also noteworthy that this was the first graduate program at UENF to achieve a CAPES score of 6.
Considering its faculty members, postdoctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, and technical staff, LMGV comprises a group of approximately 100 individuals, fully dedicated to the generation of scientific and technological knowledge in plant breeding. From a technological perspective, LMGV seeks to contribute to the Northern and Northwestern regions of the state of Rio de Janeiro, as well as to Brazil more broadly, through the development and recommendation of new cultivars. Over the past 30 years of activity, a significant number of cultivars have been developed and registered with the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply. These include cultivars of squash, common bean, papaya, passion fruit, field corn, supersweet corn, popcorn, and Capsicum species. It is worth emphasizing that, in the case of papaya, the cultivars developed represent the only national hybrids, benefiting farmers throughout the country. These efforts have also contributed to reducing Brazil’s dependence on imported seeds, which had previously occurred on a large scale before the establishment and activities of UENF.