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The Sugarcane Breeding Institute has developed transgenic sugarcane incorporating gene constructs, said its Director, Dr N. Vijayan Nair.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of Sugarcane Breeding Institute-Indian Sugar Industry: National Interactive Workshop, Dr Nair said that it would take several years before the transgenic cane is released and commercialised.
There have been several breakthroughs on the technological front. While molecular marker technologies offer more precision to sugarcane breeding, transgenic technology gives a new dimension to the varietal development programmes.
“We have used the molecular technologies in introgression of wild species and developed sugarcane transgenics,” he said, and conceded that cane agriculture faced serious challenges in terms of sustainability.
High cost of production, depleting natural resources, climate change, non-availability of labour, emerging new pests and diseases have impacted cane productivity and sustainability, he said. He stressed the need for gearing up to meet such challenges – both in technology as well as policy levels.
Voicing concern over static cane productivity, the Director said, “varietal decline and depletion of soil fertility have resulted in yield decline”.
Further studies conducted in India, Mauritius, South Africa and Trinidad showed a 30 per cent and more loss in productivity for every two degree centigrade increase in temperature.
Ethanol production
While sustainability has been a cause for concern in cane agriculture, the demand for sugar in the country by 2030 has been estimated at 36 million tonnes for which cane production should be 500 million tonnes. “This is 40 per cent higher than the current production.”
“Besides this, sugarcane itself is emerging as an important energy crop contributing to cogeneration and ethanol production. The current level of ethanol production is barely adequate to meet 10 per cent blending and the demand is expected to soar in the coming years. Cane production needs to be enhanced to meet the ethanol requirement as well,” Dr Nair said.
The cogeneration potential in the country has been estimated at 5,500 MW, while the present installed capacity is just about half at 2,500 MW.
Dr Nair said that the bagasse generated by the individual sugar mills was inadequate for year-round operation of the cogeneration plants and, therefore, necessary to have “exclusive energy plantations in marginal and wastelands with suitable varieties”.
The institute has developed Class I and II energy canes and global research is on for second generation ethanol from biomass through physical, chemical and enzymatic approaches.
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