Date Posted
15 September, 2023
Posted by
Christine Walker
New projects announced for the sugar industry will focus on engineering sugarcane plants for biofuels; improving genetic gains in cane variety breeding; and tackling major biosecurity risks to sugarcane production.
They will be delivered by collaborative research partnerships between Sugar Research Australia (SRA) and the Australian National University (ANU) (biosecurity); and SRA and The University of Queensland (variety breeding and biofuels).
The projects have been funded through three research investments made by the Australian Research Council.
Interim CEO Shaun Coffey said that the investment was very valuable for the sugar industry at an important time in its development.
“We are very excited by the strong strategic networking and collaboration that this investment will provide, coupled with access to new technologies and expertise for the benefit of the sugarcane industry,” Shaun said.
In a partnership investment with the ARC Research Hub for Engineering Plants to Replace Fossil Carbon, SRA and the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at The University of Queensland will focus on actions needed to develop the required technology, infrastructure and capacity to meet demand for biofuel in the aviation industry.
Positive announcements in recent months of financial support for the development of a domestic Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) industry by the Qantas Group, Airbus and a consortium of investors, and the Queensland and Australian Governments, was expected to encourage investment in sugarcane industry diversification.
The enormous potential demand for SAF if the airlines are to meet their zero emission obligations by 2050 could at least partially be met by the Australian sugarcane industry. In recognition of this, the ARC funding was provided under its Industrial Transformation Research Program.
SRA’s Executive Manager, Variety Development, Dr Jason Eglinton, said the Australian sugarcane industry had an important opportunity to grow because of the demand for biofuel production from the aviation industry.
“The potential benefits will be improved profitability across the industry through new added-value products that generate better returns and create new revenue streams to diversify risk,” Dr Eglinton said.
“Over the long term, the conversion of sugarcane to sustainable aviation fuel could create a substantially larger industry, whilst also enabling Australia to become increasingly self-sufficient, improving both economic resilience and national security.”
Dr Eglinton said the funding provided by ARC will fund a sugarcane gene editing platform and sugarcane mutant populations targeting improved biomass yield and composition for the production of jet fuel.
SRA and The University of Queensland’s partnership investment is with the ARC Training Centre in Predictive Breeding for Agricultural Futures.
Dr Eglinton said the aim of the Centre was to provide elite level training to a group of students who will become the next generation of leaders in plant and animal breeding.
“Two PhD students will be based at SRA and they will join existing initiatives on developing nematode resistant sugarcane and predicting the performance of cross combinations for their project work,” Dr Eglinton said.
Dr Eglinton said parasitic nematodes were estimated to cost the sugarcane industry $80 million per annum in production losses.
“All sugarcane varieties are susceptible, and growers have no cost-effective control measure.”
“The Centre will also develop and deliver plant breeding training modules to support the professional development of SRA technical staff. The technical excellence of the Centre will be supported by a series of Industry Research Fellows, including one based at SRA to work on integrating DNA-based predictive breeding with the established platform of drone-based predictions for cane yield,” he said.
“This partnership project will fast track the introgression of nematode resistance in cane varieties and produce a commercial variety using genomic selection.”
A second PhD project, predicting the performance of cross combinations in variety breeding, will use historic and current progeny performance data as the basis for investigating genetic determinates of parental performance in sugarcane breeding.
Dr Eglinton said SRA aimed to improve the efficiency of the sugarcane breeding program to achieve target genetic gain of two per cent year-on-year:
“Advances in technology achieved through engagement with the Centre will contribute to SRA delivering improved varieties to increase the on-going competitiveness of the Australian sugarcane industry. It will also provide strategic support for future skills development.”
SRA and ANU will also partner in investment with the ARC Training Centre in Plant Biosecurity.
SRA Entomologist Dr Kevin Powell said that the partnership investment with the Centre would assist SRA to control the risk to production from pests, weeds and diseases, through improved monitoring and detection of potential, new and emerging pests and diseases. Importantly, the Centre would also train future biosecurity researchers.
“There are many potential biosecurity threats to the sugarcane industry from other parts of the world. Some are geographically very close to us (e.g. in Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea). Being able to identify the pest species quickly is very important. Then, if we do get an incursion, we want to be able to manage it quickly. These actions need to be sorted out now, not only by the current research team at SRA but also those who will be taking up the baton and leading efforts in the future.”
The funding will support an Early Career Researcher at SRA, and two PhD students who will work on sugarcane biosecurity projects.
For more details on this and other research projects, please:
- Visit SRA’s website: Projects Archive – Sugar Research Australia
- Read the Spring edition of Cane Matters: Cane Matters Spring 2023 – interactive flipbook – Sugar Research Australia
Photo captions:
(Top): Dr Jason Eglinton, Executive Manager, Variety Development; and
(Bottom): Dr Kevin Powell, Entomologist.
Funded by the Australian Research Council.
Media Contact: Glenda Viner, Head of Communications and Marketing, Phone 0427 208 211