Fabricio Soares (born 6 July 1918 in

Leiria Leiria () is a city and municipality in the Central Region, Portugal, Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, after Coimbra, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat o ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

; died 14 March 1986 in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, Portugal) was a Portuguese

agronomist An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.) is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the Uni ...

. His research into Black pod disease in the 1950s resulted in a substantial increase in

cocoa Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...

cultivation in

Portuguese Guinea Portuguese Guinea (), called the Overseas Province of Guinea from 1951 until 1972 and then State of Guinea from 1972 until 1974, was a Portuguese overseas province in West Africa from 1588 until 10 September 1974, when it gained independence as G ...

(now

Guinea Bissau Guinea-Bissau, officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, is a country in West Africa that covers with an estimated population of 2,026,778. It borders Senegal to its north and Guinea to its southeast. Guinea-Bissau was once part of the kin ...

Early life and career

Soares was born in Leiria, Portugal, in 1918, and, as a student, attended the Agrarian School of Bragança, where he earned a degree in agronomy in 1940. He took a job with the Portuguese

Ministry of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

in 1941, moving to the Disease Control Office ( Escritório pelo Controlo de Doenças) in 1944.

Research and breakthrough

In the 1940s Portugal was under the Estado Novo; the

corporatist Corporatism is an ideology and political system of interest representation and policymaking whereby corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, come together and negotiate contracts ...

authoritarian Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in democracy, separation of powers, civil liberties, and ...

regime installed by

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

António de Oliveira Salazar António de Oliveira Salazar (28 April 1889 – 27 July 1970) was a Portuguese statesman, academic, and economist who served as Portugal's President of the Council of Ministers of Portugal, President of the Council of Ministers from 1932 to 1 ...

in 1933. The regime sought to maximise the independence of the

Portuguese Empire The Portuguese Empire was a colonial empire that existed between 1415 and 1999. In conjunction with the Spanish Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It achieved a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, Africa ...

through, among other things, the expansion of agriculture in its overseas territories. In 1948 Soares was sent to Portuguese Guinea to join a team researching diseases and pests that were preventing the large-scale cultivation of cocoa. From mid-1953 he was in charge of a cultivation programme along the

Corubal River The Corubal, also known as the Rio Corubal or Tomine, is a river of West Africa, a major tributary of the Geba River. For a short distance, it forms the international border between Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. It has a length of approximately . Hi ...

, near the border of

French Guinea French Guinea () was a French colonial possession in West Africa. Its borders, while changed over time, were in 1958 those of the current independent nation of Guinea. French Guinea was established by France in 1891, within the same borders as ...

, based at the Ribamar research station, north west of the village of Guilege. By experimenting with cocoa beans obtained from other West African regions, during the period 1953 to 1956, he was able to isolate a strain of the

Forastero Forastero (Spanish language, Spanish: "Outsider"; born July 30, 1994) is the ring name of a Mexican ''Lucha libre, luchador wrestling mask, enmascarado'' (or masked Professional wrestling, professional wrestler), who is signed to Lucha Libre AAA ...

bean that was resistant to the Phytophthora megakarya pathogen which causes Black pod disease. The work carried out by team resulted in a rapid expansion in cocoa cultivation in Portuguese Guinea; between 1956 and 1961 production rose 410% to 63,000 tons per annum. The Ribamar team carried out further research on the

Agrobacterium tumefaciens ''Agrobacterium tumefaciens'' (also known as ''Rhizobium radiobacter'') is the causal agent of crown gall disease (the formation of tumours) in over 140 species of eudicots. It is a rod-shaped, Gram-negative soil bacterium. Symptoms are cause ...

pathogen, which causes

Crown gall ''Agrobacterium'' is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria established by H. J. Conn that uses horizontal gene transfer to cause tumors in plants. ''Agrobacterium tumefaciens'' is the most commonly studied species in this genus. ''Agrobacterium'' is ...

disease.

Return to Portugal

In January 1963, however, the

Guinea-Bissau War of Independence The Guinea-Bissau War of Independence (), also known as the Bissau-Guinean War of Independence, was an armed independence conflict that took place in Portuguese Guinea from 1963 to 1974. It was fought between Portugal and the African Party for t ...

began with an attack on the Portuguese garrison at Tite, near the Corubal river. The Ribamar research station was abandoned within a month and Soares returned to Portugal, where he spent 14 years working for the Ministry of Agriculture in

Later research

Following the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...

of April 1974, Portuguese Guinea was recognised by the Portuguese government as the independent nation of

Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau, officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, is a country in West Africa that covers with an estimated population of 2,026,778. It borders Senegal to Guinea-Bissau–Senegal border, its north and Guinea to Guinea–Guinea-Bissau b ...

.Chilcote, Ronald H., ''The Struggle for Guinea-Bissau'', ''Africa Today'', July 1975), pp. 57-61 In 1978 Soares retired from the Ministry of Agriculture and, in January 1979, took on the role of consultant to the

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commerc ...

, travelling between

Bissau Bissau () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Guinea-Bissau. it had a population of 492,004. Bissau is located on the Geba River estuary, off the Atlantic Ocean, and is Guinea-Bissau's largest city, major port, its administr ...

ant the Franklin Providence research station, near the settlement of

Boe, Guinea-Bissau Boe (full name Madina do Boe) is a settlement in the southeastern Gabú Region of Guinea-Bissau. The population mostly comprises poor Fulani-speaking herders. Although geologically rich in bauxite, the mineral deposits have not been exploited t ...

. The research station was acquired by Franklin Providence Management, an agricultural fund, in 2004.www.european-business.com/emag/2005/01/ Profit from Research
European Business, January 2005

Final years

Soares retired permanently in 1983, and died in a car accident in Lisbon on 14 March 1986.

References

Literature

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Soares, Fabricio Portuguese agronomists 20th-century Portuguese botanists 1918 births People from Leiria 1986 deaths Road incident deaths in Portugal 20th-century agronomists