High yield management for energy cane: sustainable production of sugar, ethanol and energy

Abstract

The Brazilian sugar-energy sector experiences a moment of transformation by economic, political, social and international competition issues. Technological research seeks, incessancy, the increase in the agroindustrial productivity of sugarcane crop, as it has enormous bioenergetic potential and can competitively replace fossil fuels, changing the world energy matrix. Recently, energy cane, a new varietal type, with high fiber content, medium sugar content, high rusticity, productivity, and longevity, at least twice the traditional sugarcane, has aroused the interest of the sector. However, due to the high contrast of characteristics in relation to traditional sugarcane cultivars, there is an urgent need to investigate nutritional requirements and better agronomic management of energy cane crop, especially fertilizer and irrigation management. The hypothesis is that technological development for energy cane management, in a commercial area of planting, represents a disruptive opportunity to increase productivity and sustainability in the sugar-energy sector of São Paulo and Brazil. The objective is to adapt the management of energy cane fertilization, for commercial cultivation in dry or irrigated, replacing or complementing traditional sugarcane crop. Under controlled and field conditions, energy cane genotypes will be evaluated for the development of shoot and root system, nutritional status, attainable productivity, real productivity, and nutrient (15N, 33P, 40K, 10B and 68Zn) and water use efficiency for production of stem, total reducing sugars, fibers and their conversions into sugar, ethanol and energy, under different conditions of fertilizer and irrigation management. The technological transfer will take place through the publication of a guidebook for fertilization and soil fertility and nutritional status evaluation of BioVertis (GranBio S.A.) energy cane. (AU)