The new demands of the agricultural research require human resources highly qualified able to develop scientific proposals, technologies and polices related to the use, improvement and conservation of plant genetic resources, domesticated or not. This new emphase is based mainly in the intense use of the knowledge. The current challenges faced by the new agricultural research dealing with the establishment of strategies of characterization and in situ conservation; the definition of the sustainable use of the genetic resources: the valoration of biodiversity; the access regulation, including issues associated the country sovereignty, of the genetic divesity. Brazil is the country with the highest level of plant genetic diversity in the world, mostly unkown. Thus, it is necessary to characterize the plant germplasm and landraces to aid the natural population management and the breeding programs, taking into account the increase in the economic yield of the agricultural exploitation. A research program is proposed to train graduate students and researchers to manage the existing genetic diversity, by the knowledge and use of pertinent technologies, and with skills to act in the current agricultural transformations, favoring the sustainable rural development.
biodiversity; plant introduction; genetic conservation; agricultural research
