Tropical agricultural research in the Empire, with special reference to cacao, sugar cane, cotton and palms.

Preface signed: W. Ormsby-Gore.

The sugar cane biofactory - building blocks for the future

The sugarcane plant, with its enormous genetic capacity to accumulate carbon and manufacture and store sucrose, also has the potential to accumulate carbon and metabolically create a wide range of new molecules for industrial and other commercial uses. The extent to which this change can be developed and realised commercially is a function of the technical competence of the industry's R&D capacity, the reality of the commercial drivers which support this global agenda, and the determination of the industry to achieve such goals. The outcomes of existing R&D work already strongly support the technical challenges of this opportunity in sugarcane. The current challenge remains the commercialisation of the technology in a global market in which the current business structures and systems for the manufacture and distribution of existing (competitive) products makes the development of new product lines a higher risk than might otherwise be the case. This is despite all the claims that global markets are expecting and (in some cases) legislating the creation of more sustainable production systems. The options and issues for the development of a sugarcane biofactory system are discussed.

Biodeterioration of harvested sugar cane in Jamaica

The microbiological, physical and chemical changes which occur instored, harvested sugarcane were studied in Jamaica and the United Kingdom.The degree of deterioration was proportional to time of storage, and wasrevealed by a statistically significant reduction in sucrose content.Other symptoms included a fall in pH, and increases in reducing sugars,dextran, viscosity, and microbial count. Cut cane was universally infectedwith Leuconostoc mesenteroides, which reached a maximum count of 107 to 108organisms per ml. juice within. 3 to 4 days of harvest. Counts of othermicroorganisms were generally insignificant, except for occasional lactobacilli.A new dextran-forming species was named Lactobacillus confusus.Microorganisms isolated from deteriorated cane were screened for theirability to cause deterioration of a sterile, synthetic cane juice. L. mesenteroides strains were the most deteriogenic, but attempts toreproduce the symptoms of "sour" cane by inoculation of this organism intocut cane were only partially successful. L. mesenteroides was present in the soil and the epiphytic flora of the stalk. The principal vector of infection appeared to be the cutters' machete, especially in wet weather. Cane harvested by a chopper machine deteriorated more rapidly than hand-cut whole-stalks. Economic losses due to deterioration of harvested cane were estimated to be 9.2% of the initial recoverable sugar for the 1969 crop at Frome Estate, Jamaica. Dextran content was a useful indicator of cane biodeterioration. The dextran content of mill juices was correlated with rainfall, and significant correlations were obtained between dextran content and viscosity of mill syrups and the amount of sugar lost in final molasses; it also caused the formation of elongated crystals. Attempts to control sour cane by chemical and physical methods were unsuccessful, and it was concluded that the only solution is to mill cane within 24 hours of harvest. A novel method for removal of dextran from mill juices by enzymic treatment with dextranase was developed and patented.

Distribution of Ra-226, Th-232 and K-40 in soils and sugar cane crops at Corumbatai river basin, São Paulo State, Brazil

The common use of phosphate fertilizers NPK and amendments in sugar cane crops in Brazilian agriculture may increase the Ra-226, Th-232 and K-40 activity concentrations in soils and their availability for plants and human food chain. Thus, the main aim of this study was to evaluate the distribution of Ra-226, Th-232 and K-40 in soils and sugar cane crops in the Corumbatai river basin, São Paulo State, Brazil. The gamma spectrometry was utilized to measure the Ra-226, Th-232 and K-40 activity concentration in all samples. The soil-to-sugar cane transfer factors (TF) were quantified using the ratio between the radionuclide activity concentration in sugar cane and its activity concentration in soil. The results show that, although radionuclides incorporated in phosphate fertilizers and amendments are annually added in the sugar cane crops, if utilized in accordance with the recommended rates, their use does not lead to hazards levels in soils. The soil-to-sugar cane transfer of radionuclides occurred in the following order K-40 > Ra-226 > Th-232. Therefore, under these conditions, radionuclides intake through consumption of sugar is not hazardous to human health. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Trends in vertical movement of hexazinone herbicide considering typic eutrorthox soil of Espraiado´s stream cultivated with sugar-cane crop - local and default data scenarios.

2009

Soil carbon stock and origin in tropical soil under sugar cane management afther deforestation.

2008

Energy balances in sugar cane, coffee and natural vegetation in the northeastern side of the São Paulo state, Brazil

Under land and climate change scenarios, agriculture has experienced water competitions among other sectors in the São Paulo state, Brazil. On the one hand, in several occasions, in the northeastern side of this state, nowadays sugar-cane is expanding, while coffee plantations are losing space. On the other hand, both crops have replaced the natural vegetation composed by Savannah and Atlantic Coastal Forest species. Under this dynamic situation, geosciences are valuable tools for evaluating the large-scale energy and mass exchanges between these diffe rent agro-ecosystems and the lower atmosphere. For quantification of the energy balance components in these mixed agro-ecosystems, the bands 1 and 2 from the MODIS product MOD13Q1 we re used throughout SA FER (Surface Algorithm for Evapotranspiration Retrieving) algorithm, which was applied together with a net of 12 automatic weather stations, during the year 2015 in the main sugar cane and coffee growing regions, located at the no rtheastern side of the state. The fraction of the global solar radiation (R G ) transformed into net radiation (Rn) was 52% for sugar cane and 53% for both, coffee and natural vegetation. The respective annual fractions of Rn used as λ E were 0.68, 0.87 and 0.77, while for the sensible heat (H) fluxes they were 0.27, 0.07 and 0.16. From April to July, heat advection raised λ E values above Rn promoting negative H, however these effects were much and less strong in coffee and sugar cane crop s, respectively. The smallest daily Rn fraction for all agro-ecosystems was for the soil heat flux (G), with averages of 5%, 6% and 7% in sugar cane, coffee and natural vegetation. From the energy balance analyses, we could conclude that, sugar-cane crop presented lower annual water consumption than that for coffee crop , what can be seen as an advantage in situations of water scarcity. However, the replacement of natural vegetation by su gar cane can contribute for warming th e environment, while when this occur with coffee crop there was noticed co oling conditions. The large scale modeling satisfactory results confirm the suitability of using MODIS products togeth er with weather stations to study the energy balance components in mixed agro-ecosystems under land-use and climate change conditions.