Dr. Leo Del Duca

Dr. Leo Del Duca retired on 26 December 2005, from the National Wheat Research Centre (NWRC)­Embrapa Trigo, Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brazil, after working on wheat breeding for 35 years.

Dr. Del Duca was born in Bagé, RS, Brazil, and obtained a B.S. degree of Agronomist (Eng. Agr.) at the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPEL) and a M.Sc. in Agronomy and Ph.D. in the Department of Genetics at the Federal University of RS (UFRGS). He served in the Brazilian Army and became a reserve officer (2nd lieutenant).

Leo began to work in 1970 at the Experimental Station of Bagé (Secretariat of Agriculture, RS) as an assistant of Dr. Iwar Beckman, considered to be the father of Brazilian wheat. Beckman was an assistant of Dr. Nilsson-Ehle in Sweden and selected the genetic base of Brazilian wheats for some world reknown cultivars such as Frontana (the source of durable leaf rust and sprouting resistance) and Frondoso (protein source). While Leo was in charge of the Bagé program, he selected the cultivars Aceguá, Santiago, Hulha Negra, and Mascarenhas, the last one released to the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná (PR), and Santa Catarina. He maintained research on wheat cytogenetics at the Departments of Genetics and Crop Sciences at the UFRGS, studying the meiotic stability of Brazilian wheats. Invited to Embrapa in 1978, Leo began to work at the NWRC. He acted in coöperative efforts with foreign institutions such as INIA (Uruguay), FAO (Roma), IICA/OEA and INIA (Chile), CIMMYT (Mexico), U.S. universities, and public and praivate Brazilian institutions in Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, M. Grosso do Sul, Saõ Paulo, District Federal (DF), Goiás, and M. Gerais (MG). Some of his work involved field selections at CPAO (Dourados, MS), CPAC (Brasília, DF), CIMMYT (Obregón, Mexico), Embrapa Soja (Londrina, PR), and COTIA (S. Gotardo, MG). He participated in regional, national, and international meetings, commissions, seminars, and symposiums. Work trips included foreign countries such as Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Italy.

In addition to his role in the national wheat breeding program, Leo was a leader or responsible for research projects on basic wheat germ plasm development, partial resistance to wheat diseases, triticale genetic breeding, research of breeding procedures, wheat breeding for southern Brazil, breeding for an alternative wheat ecoideotype, and wheat for dual purpose (forage and grain). Leo also participated in the Strategic Evaluation Committee, Technical Committee, the and the Editorial Board of Embrapa, and was a consultant for many scientifc journals including Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira, Bragantia, Revista Ciência e Agrotecnologia, and Revista Brasileira de Agrociência. He evaluated national and international nurseries in basic germ plasm studies.

After a coöperative FAO project investigating horizontal resistance to diseases, Leo focused his efforts on durable resistance to biotrophic diseases, especially leaf rust and powdery mildew, where resistance are broken down more frequently. From a project evaluating breeding procedures, he obtained basic data about the effects of natural selection in bulk populations, practical results comparing different selection methods, and about early yield tests. The cultivars Embrapa 16, Embrapa 52, and BRS 176 were derived from this project, and Embrapa 16 was the most widely sown Brazilian cultivar in 1995­96. Cultivars for which Leo was responsible as the main breeder or that made a significant contribution include more than 40 soft and hard red early spring, late, or facultative wheats released to different Brazilian states. More recent results include selection of a wheat ecoideotype for the southern region of Brazil, which has a longer emergence­flowering period and a shorter reproductive period. This wheat is more suitable to sustainable agroecosystems because its earlier seeding, longer time of soil­plant cover, increased grain yield potential, and sowing times and cultivar cycles fit a wheat­soybean sequence under a no-till system. The cultivars BRS Figueira and BRS Umbu are products of this breeding strategy. Leo also began breeding dual-purpose (forage and grain) wheats for southern Brazilian, seeking to supply alternatives for early plant soil cover and for crop-livestock integration systems. Cultivars BRS Guatambu and BRS Tarumã were released for this purpose, and this strategy is gradually being adopted in RS.

Leo has authored or co-authored more than 300 scientific publications including papers, summaries, notes, book chapters, proceedings, and bulletins. In addition, he has been active in field days and extension meetings for the RS farmers, making contributions to radio, TV, newspapers, folders, and rural magazines. He is a member of Brazilian Genetics Society and Brazilian Society of Plant Breeding. Although officially retired, he is temporary returning to help advise, facilitating breeding work. Leo has dedicated considerable time to volunteer fraternal activities in a scientific, philosophic, and Christian organization (Charity's Spiritist Centre Dias da Cruz in Passo Fundo, RS). He has two adult sons (Fabio, studying Business Administration, and Raquel, a physioterapist). Leo and his wife Eliana (a wheat quality researcher and recently appointed Administration Adjunct-Head of Embrapa Trigo) have a 3 and one-half year old, nice and active daughter, named Beatriz.