Chinese Academy of Thermal Sciences: Improved Seed Breeding to Solve Sugarcane Industry Problems

Recently, the Sugarcane Center of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences has set up a scientific research station in Gengma County, Yunnan Province, aimed at promoting the development of the local sugarcane planting industry through scientific and technological means. this is also a new measure for the institute to strengthen hospital-land cooperation and actively promote the integration of production, learning and research.

For a long time, due to unreasonable variety structure, backward planting technology, poor production conditions and other reasons, sugarcane yield in China is low, and the sugarcane yield is about 4.2 tons. In recent years, under the influence of rising production costs and low sugar prices, sugarcane has been planted to the edge of profit and loss, and the sugarcane industry has reached the key point of improving quality and efficiency.

Researcher Yang Benpeng, head of the Sugarcane Center of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, believes that at present, sugarcane is basically planted in China, and the spread of bacteria, the decline in sugar yield and the difficulty of unified seed supply have become bottlenecks restricting the development of the sugarcane industry. Sugarcane virus-free healthy seedlings overcome the shortcomings of traditional seedlings, is the most effective measure to replace sugarcane seedlings, increase per unit yield and sugar content, and is an important basis for improving quality and efficiency of sugarcane industry.

"We began to study the breeding technology of improved sugarcane varieties in 2001. After more than 10 years of research and development, the comprehensive technology of virus-free and healthy sugarcane seedlings can increase the per unit yield by more than 20%, increase sucrose content by 0.5%, and save seeds by 60% at the same time." Yang Benpeng said that the Academy of Thermal Sciences has made breakthroughs in a number of key technologies, such as industrial cultivation of seedlings, large-scale transplanting and pseudo-planting, field propagation, PCR detection of multiple pathogens, and production and cultivation, effectively solving the problem of degradation of sugarcane varieties and prolonging the useful life of fine varieties.

According to reports, in recent years, around the sugarcane industry chain layout innovation chain, the integration of scientific research forces inside and outside the institute, has set up seven R & D teams to jointly tackle key problems with innovation. A standardized cultivation technology system suitable for mechanical tillage was constructed, and the agronomic techniques matched with farming machinery were preliminarily developed, and a set of comprehensive techniques for virus-free sugarcane seedlings, including seedlings and planting methods, were formed. it realizes the effective connection between sugarcane scientific research, industrial technology system and industrial development.

At present, the Sugarcane Center of the Academy of Thermal Sciences has carried out comprehensive technical demonstration and promotion in Hainan, Guangxi, Yunnan and other places. Over the past seven years, the academy has accumulated more than 900000 mu of sugarcane virus-free healthy seedlings, with an average increase of 2 tons per mu. Sugarcane farmers have increased their net income by more than 700 yuan per mu. Virus-free healthy seedlings became popular among sugarcane farmers. during the promotion period in Fusui County, Chongzuo City, Guangxi Autonomous region, many surrounding farmers rushed to the demonstration base to pull the seedlings, and could not wait for the base workers to cut down the sugarcane seedlings one after another. they personally cut down the cane seedlings and carried them in their own cars.

"We study sugarcane not only on a single technology, but also on the construction of the technological system and the comprehensive technology for the healthy development of the sugarcane industry." Yang Benpeng told the reporter that with the deepening of the research, the division of labor among the team members is constantly subdivided: researcher Zhang Shuzhen has carried out research on molecular biology and genetically modified sugarcane, seizing the cutting-edge technology of sugarcane research in the world; researcher Li Ming is stepping up the research and development of sugarcane farming machinery to solve the problems of high labor cost and high labor intensity in sugarcane production. Researcher Li Jihua extracted nanocellulose from sugar-squeezed bagasse and made it into masks and packaging materials to get benefits from the deep processing of sugarcane.

"Modernization and practicality are the key words for the development of sugarcane industry." Wang Qinghuang, president of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, said that in the next step, the Academy of Thermal Sciences will focus on key technical organizations such as healthy varieties, scientific planting, irrigation and water conservancy, farming mechanization, large-scale production and management contracts, in an effort to build a modern sugarcane industry. At the same time, we should do a good job of "scientific research-demonstration-promotion" so that science and technology can be settled in the production and development of thousands of households. (Lin Chuan reporter Deng Weizhe)