Brazilian Cashew Germplasm Bank

The cashew germplasm bank located in Pacajus, Ceara State, Brazil, holds 621 accessions, most of which belong to Anacardium occidentale. Introduction of plants into the germplasm bank started in the 1950s. Nowadays, the main goals of the cashew germplasm bank is to document and conserve plant material, which can then be used to enrich the available genetic variation in the species, serve as a basis for agronomic and morphological characterizations of accessions, and support breeding programs. The accessions have been characterized with morphological, agronomic and molecular descriptors. The genetic variability contained in the collection has allowed development of early dwarf cashew clones, recommended for commercial planting in northeastern Brazil since the 1980s until today. The genetic basis of early dwarf cashew has been expanded by natural and artificial hybridization with regular cashew genotypes from the germplasm bank, to increase the weight and size of nut and kernel. Interspecific hybrids of A. occidentale × A. othonianum and A. occidentale × A. microcarpum have been produced in order to transfer anthracnose resistance alleles and desired quality traits to table cashew. Passportization data have been submitted to the SIBRAGEN data bank.