The Graduate Program in Plant Pathology offers since 1997 the Master´s and Doctorate Programs. Before this, from 1987 to 1996, it consisted of a Master´s Program in Plant Health. Since its creation and until 2013, 234 master’s degrees, 61 in Plant Health and 173 in Plant Pathology, and 86 doctorate degrees in Plant Pathology were awarded. Based on this experience, the program fulfills its role in the formation of specialized professionals to act in the area of Plant Pathology, meeting the requirements of a modern and sustainable agriculture, also concerned with the environment.

The Graduate Program in Plant Pathology is comprised by a team of 12 professors from the Department of Plant Pathology, all with doctorate degrees, 2 collaborating professors, in addition to professors from other departments and institutions accredited to the program, encompassing all main areas of Plant Pathology.

The modern infrastructure is comprised by the Laboratories of Bacteriology, Diagnosis, biological Control and Plant Disease Control, Epidemiology and Plant Disease Management, Parasitism Physiology, Nematology, Seed Pathology, Forestry Pathology, Fungi Systematics and Ecology, Electron Microscopy and Ultrastructural Analysis, Molecular Phytovirology and Plant Virology. In addition to many greenhouses and experimental fields, there are the Phytosanitation Clinic and Center for the Indexation of Potato Virus of the State of Minas Gerais.

The referred to laboratories support the research and extension projects developed by the students and professors of the Department. The team fulfills an important role in the extension and promotion of knowledge by means of analyzing disease in plant materials and testing products with the potential for use in phytosanitary defense

The Graduate Program in Agronomy/Phytopathology (PPG-Fito), based in the Department of Phytopathology (DFP) at the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA), was created in 1995. After its dismembering, the Master’s and Doctorate programs were established with the primary objectives of training people to work in teaching, research and extension in Phytopathology and related fields, and of conducting basic and applied research that is able to meet the current demands of the community, such as sustainability of global agriculture, reducing of the environmental impact of agricultural activities and increase in quality, productivity and in the added value of agricultural products, always in line with the needs of the population and in compliance with the government guidelines.

At the end of 2010, a professor was hired in the field of Biological Control of Plant Diseases, with an emphasis on Molecular Biology. Still at the end of 2010, Professor Maria Alves Ferreira was hired to replace the newly retired professor, Hilário Antônio de Castro. The graduate program in Phytopathology of DFP-UFLA, in 2014, had a total of 14 advising professors, 11 being permanent and three collaborators. The latter include Professor Mario Sobral de Abreu (Professor from UFLA retired in 2014), Professor Jorge Teodoro (hired in August 2014) and researcher Wagner Bettiol (EMBRAPA-ENVIRONMENT). Twelve professors, with research grants from CNPq (seven level 1 and four level 2 grants) teach the subjects and develop, at PPG-Fito, lines of research in all subareas of Phytopathology. In 20 years, since the creation of PPG-Fito, 118 Doctorate degrees and 272 Master’s degrees were granted, there being an increase in the number of students, with the maximum obtained by semester being 75, not disregarding the approximate average of six to eight students/professor.

In the last decade, PPG-Fito went through a consolidation phase, not only in terms of renewal of the teaching staff, but in the expansion of the work of professors to research directed towards important subareas, such as Epidemiology, Electron Microscopy, Physiology of Parasitism, Systematics, Molecular Biology Applied to Phytopathology, Biological Control, Forest Pathology and Ecology of Fungi, and also in the adjusting and improving of the infrastructure of the program. There was a significant increase in floor area and in the support structure, in addition to improvements in the system of computerization and the acquisition of new equipment. In recent years various laboratories of DEP-UFLA have been renovated, including the laboratories of Bacteriology, Molecular Virology, the Virus Indexing Center of Minas Gerais and the Electron Microscopy Laboratory. The following adjustments have been made in the laboratories: replacement of workbench coating with waterproof granite stones, hard flooring, taps which are more suited for laboratory activities, and closed cabinets for reagents, meeting the requirements of good laboratory practices.

With the approval of new research projects, the Seeds Pathology Laboratory, in 2009, and the Laboratory of Nematology in 2010, have also underwent significant reforms, for the installation of Molecular Biology equipment focused on host pathogen interaction studies, in different pathosystems, involving fungi and seeds, along with the expansion and adaptation of the Laboratory of Nematoid Analyses. In 2012, a 72 m² greenhouse and a 12 m² Fitotron were built in the Seeds Pathology sector. These reforms were made with part of the funds offered by UFLA and with large part of research projects funds and other sources, collected by the professors of the Department of Phytopathology. Various projects approved in the 2009-2012 period allowed also the acquisition of important equipment for the conducting of more advanced research, such as, for example, an epifluorescence microscope with a high-resolution Apotome system, a fluorescence stereoscopic microscope and a common epifluorescence microscope, all funded by CAPES, to meet the demand of research developed in the field of pathogen-host interaction using fluorescent markers. An X-Ray Microanalysis System and a system of Cryo-transfer and Cryo-scanning were also purchased for the Electron Microscopy Laboratory’s Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). This allowed an improvement in the conditions of infrastructure, increasing scientific production and improving educational and extension activities. Also at the end of 2013, the construction of Phytopathology’s annex building, with approximately 1500 m², was initiated. It will have five new laboratories, a theoretical classroom, simulation classrooms for graduate students and the new Laboratory of Electron Microscopy and Ultrastructural Analysis, whose construction started in 2014 and it will be finished on November 2015. In the same year, PPG-Fito had the collaboration of 12 researchers with grants (Post-Doctorate), distributed among the seven professors of the Program. These researchers have been of great importance to the Program, regarding the implementation of research projects that are currently in progress. In addition, the research projects of PPG-Fito involved 55 Scientific Initiation grant holders, 20 with grants from CNPq, 11 with grants from FAPEMIG, one with grant from PET, seven with grants from Enterprises and eight with institutional grants from UFLA. In addition to these, PPG-Fito also had eight Scientific Initiation students without grants, associated with the Institutional Scientific Initiation Voluntary Program of UFLA (PIVIC), and six BIC Junior interns, who receive grants funded by CNPq and FAPEMIG. In 2014, 12 titles were granted in the Master’s program and 12 titles were granted in the Doctorate program. The average time of title granting (TMT) has been balanced in accordance with CAPES’s recommendations. In 2015, 13 dissertations and 19 theses were defended.

PPG-Fito, following the current policy of UFLA’s Post-Graduation President’s Office, made a number of changes to its Regulation and to its Curriculum Structure, for improving operationalization and increasing the program’s intellectual production. The three-year grant period for students of the Doctorate Program in 2004-2006, currently can be extended for another year if the student, at the end of three years, has already had a project accepted in an A or B1 Qualis journal, and demonstrates that they have the potential to generate another project in the same category the following year or to undergo an inter-university exchange doctorate program abroad. With this, the performance of the Program has significantly increased while maintaining a high standard of publications in order to enhance its concept.

Various other measures have been applied in order to establish a program of excellence that is also internationalized. The number of articles published increased from 111 in the 2007-2009 period, to 143 in the last evaluation (2010-2012), a significant increase of 29%, this being considered the main gain in the quality of publications, which moved to the journals classified as A1, A2 and B1 (94 articles in the 2010-2013 period and 34 articles in the 2007-2009 period, an increase of approximately 175%). In 2014 there were 56 articles in total. In 2015, 62 articles, with a 33% increase in publications for the 2013-2015 period. The adoption of a written selection exam, for PPG-Fito’s candidates, from the first half of 2009, including a test of proficiency in English, has allowed the entry of students who are more prepared and more capable of succeeding in English tests (Toefl, Ielts), which gives candidates the opportunity of participating in inter-university exchange doctorate programs, contributing to the improvement in the quality of PPG-Fito’s publications. Six students participated in the inter-university exchange doctorate program in various international universities. In 2015, two students participated in the inter-university exchange doctorate program in the Wageningen University (Netherlands). Still in accordance with PPG-Fito’s firm purpose of internationalization, 13 agreements or projects with 13 universities or research centers abroad were signed, the agreements with the University of Delaware (USA), the University of Kentucky (USA) and the Wageningen University (Netherlands) having financial support granted by the USDA ($290.000), CNPQ/Capes through the Young Talent Attraction Program, visiting researchers and by CAPES/NUFFIC, respectively.

All these facts, combined with the amount of resources that have been collected by PPG-Fito’s professors, enabling the achievement of high-quality researches, will contribute to the evolution of the Program and to the increase of CAPES’s score to a 6 in the next quadrennial evaluation.