Sílvio Ávila
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Climbing up the Sierra
31st National Corn and SorghumCongress, scheduled for September
25 through September 29, is focused on innovations, market and food safety
Rio Grande do Sul will be the venue for
the 31st edition of the National Corn and
Sorghum Congress in 2016. The event will
be held in Bento Gonçalves, Sierra Gau-
cha region, 25 through 29 September
2016. The State had not hosted a meeting
since 1992, when it was held in the capital
city, Porto Alegre. The congress is held ev-
ery other year. Rio Grande do Sul ranks as
sixth biggest producer of the cereal, with
the 2015/16 crop estimated at 5.892 million
tons by the National Food Supply Agency
(Conab). Corn and Sorghum play a funda-
mental role in the economy of the State, as
raw material for the production of feed for
the meat and milk supply chains.
The theme of this edition will be “Corn
and sorghum: innovations, markets and
food safety”. The program will emphasize
the debates on the impacts of the new tech-
nologies generated by public and private re-
search institutions and their developments
in the area of studies, research and exten-
sion works of the corn and sorghum crops
in Brazil. The congress will equally feature
two workshops – one on integrated man-
agement of the armyworm and the second
on the green stink bug – besides two tech-
nical meetings on the cereals in question.
The objective consists in attracting re-
searchers, producers, extension agents,
technicians, manufacturers of inputs, agri-
cultural machinery and equipment, coop-
eratives, teachers and students. Together
they will analyze the technological break-
throughs responsible for the development
of sorghum and corn crops.
According to researcher Décio Karam,
from Embrapa Corn and Sorghum, also pres-
ident of the Brazilian Corn and Sorghum As-
sociation (ABMS), entity responsible for pro-
moting the event, the selection of the theme
“Innovations, market and food safety” has to
do with the present scenario and is also based
on debates of previous congresses. One of the
highlights of the program is the lecture on the
impacts of globalization inmaintaining the ge-
netic diversity and food safety.
ABMS is the promoter of the event,
which will be held by Embrapa, State Foun-
dation of Agricultural Research (Fepagro),
Emater/Ascar – Rio Grande do Sul Associ-
ation of Technical Assistance and Rural Ex-
tension Works and the government of the
State of Rio Grande do Sul. The complete
program can be accessed at site
.
org.br/cnms/prog_congresso.html.
Bento Gonçalves (RS) sedia umdos
principais encontros dessa cultura
Bento Gonçalves (RS)
is the venue for one
of the most important
meetings of this crop
