Paraguay imports all the seeds it uses for crops of tomato, onion, locote, potato, carrot, lettuce, among other items, from its neighbor countries, even if they have other climatic and soil conditions.
The country is just starting to develop research to create new local seeds. According to Mario Leon, Deputy Minister of Agriculture under the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG), the Paraguayan Institute of Agricultural Technology (IPTA), is in charge of developing the plans to create new local seeds.
He said that, many times, producers didn't achieve optimal performance because they didn't have seed varieties adapted to their climate. "The excessive heat in Paraguay warrants conducting research to find seeds that can adapt to this weather to achieve a good performance," Leon said.
However, he said, there are several private companies working on the development of vegetable varieties adapted to the country.
He said the MAG is urging businesses to perform research that can benefit local producers.
He added that it wouldn't be easy to overcome the existing problems in horticultural agriculture, as many of them had to do with the lack of public policies to boost production of basic staple foods.
He also said that, apart from having adapted seeds, vegetable growers needed to have access to the infrastructure and horticultural products to shield their production from the excessive heat and the ravages of the climate, such as greenhouses and irrigation systems. "In times of extreme heat, the production has no quality because producers don't have the access to technology," said Leon.
According to data from the Department of Agricultural Extension (DEAg), Paraguay only produces two tomato variety seeds and lettuce seeds.
Graciela Estigarribia, a horticulture specialist from the DEAg, said having seeds adapted to the soil and climate of the country was very important for crop development. It is worth noting that there has been an increase in the price of staple foods because of decrease in production; which, despite natural resources, is in part due to the inefficiency in production.
