In the early stages of the SRA/Dupont GM Sugarcane Joint Venture – see page 26 – researchers began to develop ‘synthetic seed’ planting technology, but this technology faced local technical and cost challenges so SRA did not make a subsequent investment in this project. SRA however, is monitoring new technologies in the synthetic seed space and investigating whether these technologies are suitable for Australia.
SECTION 3
THE FUTURE T hi s sect i on brought to you i n as s oc iati on wi t h
CEEDS – a new approach to planting sugarcane O By Dr Paul Carver – New Energy Farms (Developer of the CEEDS Technology)
T
HE cane multiplication and planting techniques which are used to plant 26 million hectares of world sugarcane production have hardly changed over hundreds of years. Commercial sugarcane varieties are sterile, they do not produce seeds, so new crops must be established by techniques using vegetative propagation. Traditionally, whole stems, harvested from standing crops, would be laid in furrows (a technique still used in many countries today) but modern refinements have progressed to billets and even short stem sections with perhaps only one or two buds per stem section. This is a multiplication and planting methodology which can require between 12 tonnes and 20 tonnes of whole cane stems to be planted per hectare and can use up to 20 per cent of the cane planted area just to produce planting material for the next year’s crop. Recognising that establishing new cane crops was inefficient, and also a research area of sugarcane production that had been neglected, the plant technology business New Energy Farms (NEF) set out to develop new techniques to vegetatively propagate sugarcane to allow
it to be planted like conventional seeded row crops. Farmers planting many other of the world’s important crops like wheat, maize, rice and barley have easier logistics compared to sugarcane growers. Seed is readily available, and logistically easy to plant. CEEDS technology provides the possibility of planting less than 400 kg of sugarcane plants per hectare, encased in growing medium containing crop protection products, all with a protective waxy coat. That is the reality of CEEDS technology, developed by NEF after nine years of research.
Not GM technology This is not GM technology and it is not another refinement of tissue culture technology. It is a new technology based upon understanding the physiological processes which take place in plants that are vegetatively propagated and using that knowledge to create radically different planting propagules. The primed plant material, in its protective coat, with its targeted crop protection products and growth promoters (if desired) is about the size of a potato and can be planted with
CEEDS propagules – The primed plant material, in its protective coat, with its targeted crop protection products and growth promoters (if desired) is about the size of a potato and can be planted with automated planters.
AUSTRALIAN SUGARCANE ANNUAL 2019 — 29
