Livro Agroceres

Hybrid corn was the product of the crossing of pure lin-
soa, until 1942, when he contracted typhus and decided to
Production began on the 65-hectare São Fernando farm,
to devote himself entirely to Agroceres. The capital needed to
eages obtained by self-fecundation until they generated ge-
return home. He spent two years at the Brazilian-American
which they purchased in Goianá, a district of Rio Novo,
make the company grow came from an unexpected source.
netically homogeneous – i.e., pure – descendants.
The crossing of pure lineages produced seeds with hybrid
vigor, capable of generating plants with a much higher
productivity than those from conventional seeds of the time,
selected from the previous harvest.
When he returned to Brazil, Secundino brought with him
a collection of corn lineages and crossings obtained from
American universities and, together with ESAV professor and
researcher Gladstone Drummond, dove into research toward
Commission for Foodstuffs Production and was then hired
for a position at General Mills, in Niterói, state of Rio de Janeiro.
That was where he met American chemist John Ware,
who encouraged him to present his hybrid corn project to
the company. The presentation did take place, but General
Mills failed to approve the investment.
Still, Secundino and Ware did not give up on the project.
Secundino, with capital borrowed from his father-in-law, invited
Gladstone Drummond and another friend, Adylio Vitarelli,
Minas Gerais. In its first year, the company produced and
sold 3,000 kg of seeds packaged into bags that Secundino’s
wife, Memorina, stitched together on her sewing machine.
Secundino’s daughter Nice tells of the celebrations of
Agroceres’s first anniversary: “The ‘party’ coincided with the
christening of Neyde [Secundino’s youngest daughter], and
only the family and Adylio Vitarelli were present. On top of
the cake lay a beautiful ear of corn, pierced and plugged
with a candle that Secundino and Adylio blew out.”
In 1946, Nelson Rockefeller, one of the heirs of the Rockefeller
companies and a future US Vice President, heard from
Dee Jackson reports on the creation of a seeds company in
Brazil. Rockefeller took a keen interest in Agroceres, since
he had recently formed the International Basic Economy
Corporation (IBEC), an agricultural arm of the Rockefeller
Foundation whose purpose was to demonstrate the benefits
of capitalism as an agent for economic and social development.
A seeds company in a developing country such as
obtaining a hybrid corn adapted to Brazil’s environment.
while Ware brought his countryman Dee William Jackson
To make sales, Secundino would go out on his Jeep and
Brazil was a perfect match for Rockefeller’s plans, and, in
Their results, however, showed that – with a single exception
– the lineages and varieties imported from the United
States would not adapt to Brazil’s tropical and subtropical
climates. The exception – the Tuxpan Yellow Dent variety
– gave rise to several well adapted lineages, but was not
sufficient to produce a Brazilian hybrid. Other lineages
would have to be created from local varieties, a process
that would require lots of additional time and resources.
into the group. The five decided to name the company after
Ceres – the Roman goddess of harvests, from which the word
cereal evolved –, but another company already held rights
to the brand. They then added the term agro to the name,
and so, on September 20, 1945, Agroceres came to be.
Secundino was to be the company’s first President.
Brazil’s first commercial hybrid corn was developed from
lineages obtained from the Tuxpan Yellow Dent variety (de-
talk the local farmers that, by planting his seeds, they would
achieve harvests 20 to 30 percent greater than from seeds
selected from their silos. In fact, he knew that productivity
would be even greater and that the happy farmers would
buy more for the next sowing. The miracle corn’s reputation
quickly spread across the region.
Secundino had made his dream of becoming a businessman
come true, but profits would still take a long time to come
1947, he sought out Secundino to propose an association.
IBEC would hold a controlling stake and provide the majority
of the equity for Agroceres, but management was to be
the responsibility of the Brazilian partners.
Antonio Pedro Total, in his book O Amigo Americano
(“The American Friend”), on the billionaire’s initiatives in
Brazil, tells of the creation of IBEC and Rockefeller’s association
with Secundino. “In October 1950, back in New
In 1941, Secundino accepted an invitation to become
rived in its turn from Mexico’s Tuxpeño) and from local vari-
and capital for growth was limited. In December 1947, he
York, Nelson wrote to Secundino to report his impression
Paraíba State Secretary of Agriculture, Transport, Industry,
eties Catete, Xavier, and Amarelão, which Gladstone and
accepted an invitation to become the Dean of ESAV, a posi-
of a visit to the town of Jacarezinho, state of Paraná. He
and Commerce. He remained in the state capital, João Pes-
Secundino had been testing and improving for years.
tion he retained until January 1951, when he was finally able
calls the Brazilian ‘Dear Tony’, Americanizing his given
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