Sugarcane

Thailand produces about 73 million tons of sugarcane annually. Strategies for improve productivity include better farm management, irrigation and improved varieties. Each variety has specific characteristics suitable for a particular planting area and environment.

Research on improving sugarcane for food focuses on high biomass (increasing high productivity per unit area), high sugar content (13 CCS), disease resistance, ratooning ability (more than 2 crops), while for energy cane the focus is on high fiber (raw material for electricity) and high sugar content (raw material for ethanol production). For forage cane the focus is on digestibility (soft fiber) and higher nutritional value for animal feed.

Numerous varieties have been collected both domestically and internationally to establish a germplasm base. This includes 1,280 varieties identified by 20 SSR microsatellite markers. Molecular markers have been used for yield improvement, including developing a DNA marker for high sugar content.

Hybrid populations from Phill6607 with high sugar content have been crossed with wild species and used to map the QTL with AFLP and SSR markers. The resultant populations have been used to study ratooning ability, red rot – wilt and smut disease.

BIOTEC has been collaborating with Mitrphol Research Ltd. and Innova Biotechnology to develop a white leaf disease test kit (lateral flow IC). The test kits are used for detection of the white leaf disease from the parent clone before mass production by tissue culture technology and for detection in the seedling stock before distribution to growers.