Sugarcane

The issues

The sustainability of the supply chain is reliant on maintaining the millions of small-scale producers and the economic equilibrium of sugar mills, and regulating international markets.

• Satisfying growing, more diverse demand.
• Choosing types of products suited to economic, social, technical and environmental viability targets.
• Taking account of local, regional and international market regulatory mechanisms.
• Fostering and promoting the positive impacts of sugarcane on the environment, and minimizing the others.

CIRAD's role

CIRAD works to improve cane varieties while reducing the overall environmental impact of the supply chain and making optimum use of the ecological services rendered by the crop.

• Promoting the ecological functions of sugarcane: land management, landscape development, carbon balance.

• Producing better, cleaner products, through:
  - integrated pest and weed management using an agro-ecological approach;
  - sugar mill wastes recycling;
  - revised crop management sequences, specific to local products, environments, and social and economic conditions;
  - the dissemination of disease-free varieties and greater epidemiological surveillance;
  - the use of information acquisition and management techniques for decision support systems.

• Developing and breeding varieties that are good for bioproducts.