Sustainability of sugarcane production

Written by Dr Janet Higgins, Post-Doctoral Scientist in the Agricultural Diversity Programme

Sugarcane is very efficient at harnessing energy from sunlight and the Cauca valley in Colombia provides the ideal conditions for sugarcane production. I am working as a plant scientist within the GROW Colombia project and together with scientists in Colombia, our aim is to breed improved sugarcane varieties, which are more resilient to climate change, resistant to pests and diseases and use less inputs.

Sugarcane is an enormous grass and it has a genome size to match its stature, although these things are not related. This means there are huge challenges in breeding improved varieties. My initial aim is to find out more about the sugarcane genome using over 200 sugarcane plants and their wild relatives, which originated in Asia.

The modern sugarcane varieties are all hybrids, that means they are a mixture of the wild relatives. Sugarcane hybrids are used to produce our sugar as well as an increasing number of other products, the most important being bioethanol which is a renewable alternative to petrol.

My interest in plants goes beyond sugarcane as I am interested in all plants which grow in the British Isles, from the tiniest grasses to huge trees and my ambition is to study plants from all over the world. I have already had the opportunity to enjoy the huge variety of plants which grow in Colombia, from a short visit to Bogota and Leticia. I am very much looking forward to having the opportunity to visit the Cauca valley region of Colombia. This will enable me to better appreciate the challenges of sugarcane production and its impact on the local flora and fauna.