Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences Sugarcane Research Institute's Breakthrough Sugarcane Variety Breeding Project Successfully Passes Acceptance

On March 27, 2024, a project titled “Breeding Breakthrough Sugarcane Varieties,” funded by the Guangxi Innovation-Driven Development Special Fund and undertaken by the Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangxi Subtropical Agricultural Research Institute, Guangxi Institute of Tropical Crops, and Liuzhou Agricultural Sciences Research Center, successfully underwent on-site acceptance by an expert panel organized by Guangxi Science and Technology Economic Development Center Co., Ltd. in Nanning. Researcher Wang Lunwang, a sugarcane breeding expert and the project leader from the Sugarcane Research Institute, provided a detailed report to the expert panel on the overall progress and significant achievements of the project. After carefully listening to the report, reviewing the acceptance materials, and engaging in rigorous questioning and discussion, the expert panel unanimously agreed to pass the project for acceptance. Over three years of intensive implementation, the project has achieved significant innovations in breeding and evaluation technologies for varieties resistant to smut disease, early-maturing with high sugar content, high-yielding, strong ratooning, and suitable for mechanized harvesting. Building upon previous breeding efforts, the project successfully developed eight breakthrough sugarcane varieties tailored for mechanized operations. Under mechanized harvesting conditions, these new varieties showed a 12.2% to 44.8% increase in ratoon cane yield per unit area compared to the control variety Guitang 42, and an 8.2% to 50.5% higher sugar content per unit area. Furthermore, all new varieties demonstrated resistance to smut disease at or above the resistant level. Specifically, six varieties—Guitang 64, 65, 67, 69, 73, and Liutang 1017—exhibited high resistance to smut, while five varieties—Guitang 64, 65, 67, 69, and 76—possessed advantages of early maturity and high sugar content. Notably, the new variety “Guitang 76” stands out with its exceptional comprehensive performance, combining excellent traits such as early maturity, high sugar content, high yield, stable production, strong ratooning ability, resistance to smut disease, automatic defoliation, and suitability for mechanized production. This variety has been widely welcomed by sugarcane farmers, large-scale planters, and sugar mills. Sugar associations and numerous sugar manufacturing enterprises in major sugarcane-producing areas like Chongzuo and Laibin have successively introduced incentive policies, offering premium prices for raw cane of these superior new varieties to encourage their adoption. Moving forward, the project team will continue to intensify efforts in pilot production, propagation, demonstration, training, promotion, and popularization of the newly developed varieties. The goal is to rapidly expand the market share of these new varieties, enabling them to quickly become key varieties supporting the high-quality development of Guangxi's sugar industry.