Community
14 May, 2024
Sugar research in the spotlight
LATEST research activities and technologies aimed at ensuring a sustainable and prosperous future for the Australian sugarcane industry were on show at Sugar Research Australia’s Meringa Field Day last week.
About 80 growers, millers and other industry partners gathered at SRA’s Meringa Station at Gordonvale, where they had the opportunity to talk one-on-one with the researchers and scientists behind the broad scope of SRA’s research project work, as well as other local productivity improvement activities.
SRA is the principal research organisation for the Australian sugarcane industry and one of its core functions is crossing and selecting new varieties of sugarcane for commercial use.
SRA’s northern variety development manager Dr Felicity Atkin conducted tours of the station’s variety development program throughout the day and gave an update on northern cane varieties.
“If you’re not familiar with the sugar industry, you’re probably unaware that there are over 100 different varieties of sugarcane that are grown across Australia,” she said.
“Growers choose which varieties they plant, depending on their local farm conditions, and the variety’s various productivity and agronomic characteristics which includes cane yield, sugar content, ratooning ability, disease resistance, harvestability and more.”
Dr Atkin said the crossing and selection process for new varieties and release for commercial use was a complex process, taking approximately 12 years.
“At any one time, the Meringa experiment station has over 60,000 unique individual seedlings, clones and varieties planted for crossing and selection purposes,” she said.
SRA Far North district manager Gavin Rodman said this year’s field day included an engaging line-up of presentations and displays involving variety development processes, automated irrigation technologies, using drones for research, chemical controls and weed management.
