Variety Is The Spice Of The Sugar Industry

By Kevin Borg, Chairman, CANEGROWERS Mackay

Sugarcane comes in a range of varieties selected to suit different soils, capability to ripen at different points during the season, disease resistance, mill-ability and more. In a lot of ways, having good varieties is as important to the industry as is having well-performing mills.

Sugar Research Australia is the industry’s research body responsible for variety development among a host of other important areas. It’s a huge job, not an easy one. There is much happening within the breeding program both continued and groundbreaking: in my view, the appointment last year of CEO Mick Bartlett has been a boon to the industry. Mick has a willingness to listen and interact with all of SRA’S stakeholders.

SRA also continues to work hard to develop its technology.

At last week’s Sugar Cubed 25 – the Queensland CANEGROWERS’ state conference- delegates had the chance to tour SRA’s new state-of-the-art Innovative Research & Industry Services (IRIS) Laboratories at Acacia Ridge. As Chair of the state Farm Inputs and Research Committee I had toured the facility when it first opened last year, and it was good to see it is continuing to develop, with Near Infra-Red (NIR) testing capabilities now up and running. NIR allows for highly accurate analysis of cane samples.  While SRA has its own research uses for the technology, NIR offers great benefit across the industry, and it would be positive to see our mills adopt its use in cane analysis programs as it would assist with clear, fast information useful to both growers and millers about cane quality as it is received at the mill.

IRIS offers cutting-edge laboratories for across biosecurity considerations like quarantine and plant disease, genetics, tissue culture, entomology, soil and water analysis, and chemistry. It is at the heart of finding the key to the industry’s assault on Ratoon Stunting Disease, a debilitating disease that costs the industry millions every year.

It is working on ways from tissue culture to using plant genomics to reduce the timeframes for variety development, to have them screened and released to the industry sooner.

Since the transformation of BSES to SRA some 12 years ago, along with others I have had the opportunity to monitor the progress of SRA, through the eyes of a member of the QCGO Board and Policy Council, along with locally on the CANEGROWERS Mackay board, Plane Creek Productivity Services board and our own Regional Variety selection committee. CANEGROWERS at all levels through this period has continued to work hard with SRA to put in place procedures that enhance the service to industry.

It is well known that our industry-owned research organisation is renowned and envied by other industries worldwide. Through our levies, we own an organisation that has put us in the top position against our competitors in production and farming practices.

Our variety breeding program is second to none. However: the variety program was set back years when we were devastated by orange rust and then further when smut was detected in the Queensland industry.

These setbacks have left some gaping holes in the release of new varieties and recovery has taken time.
It takes 13 years from when a new seedling has been first propagated and selected to when it is released as a new variety. That screening program takes into consideration a number of traits like growth, disease resistance, tons of sugar per hectare, millability, along with other criteria.

Unfortunately, the more of these criteria that are built into the program increases the vulnerability to be excluded from the program anytime throughout the screening program.

So, out of thousands of seedlings only just a few make it through the program and then stock has to be bulked up for release when it then undergoes the scrutiny of the growers. New tissue culture technology will most likely speed this process up.

The reality is that any variety that is introduced into the program today will not be released until the year 2038.

We as growers regard varieties as top priority, and in my view the new changes within SRA will see better communication with stakeholders. At the time of inception of the new model, SRA as a separate entity from Productivity Services was a move away from the well-known research and extension model on which the former BSES had prided itself.

The change was implemented by industry because of a recommendation put forward by the consultants working with stakeholders. This hot issue at the time was a make-or-break decision for some stakeholders to agree to a statutory levy. That unfortunately was not the optimal outcome. After a period of operating without the intertwined extension model the industry has come to the conclusion that extension needs to be part of the R&D model and will be reintroduced into the system.

As an industry we enjoy a research organisation that is funded by a statutory levy by growers, millers and government. That being the case, SRA need to be accountable for their actions and what they deliver.

‍

SRA has a world-class breeding program, the envy of many countries. Photo source: SRA

‍

‍