* Davila Alves, agricultural specialist at Netafim
Brazil is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of sugar. In 2023, the country produced about 40 million tons of sugar, representing about 20% of global production. Moreover, it is responsible for about 25% of global sugar exports. This important participation highlights the crucial role that Brazil plays in the global sugar market, both in terms of production and trade (CONAB, 2024).
The Brazilian supplier estimates that the international sugar market will be favorable in 2024/25, with high demand for the Brazilian product. In the first half of the current year, sugar exports reached 11.6 million tons, an increase of 27.1% compared to the same period of the previous year, achieving $5.6 billion, an increase of about 24%. Prices are expected to remain favorable due to the expected decline in production in Asia.
Moreover, for the 2024/25 season, sugarcane production in the Northeast is expected to grow by 5.6% compared to the previous period, reaching 59.62 million tons. This growth is due to the expansion of cultivated areas and improvement in productivity, driven by favorable climatic conditions. This provides a significant advantage to the sugar and alcohol industry in the face of increasing international demand.
Although the prospects for sugarcane production are promising this year, Sachdeva et al. (2011) state that the economic yield of a crop is mainly determined by sucrose accumulation, which reaches its peak during the physiological maturity of the plant. The ripening process is strongly influenced by climatic factors, such as temperature, photoperiod and water shortage, which can positively or negatively affect the rate of total recoverable sugars (ATR) and thus sucrose accumulation.
Then we saw years of decline in productivity due to climatic factors in the northeastern region and in some states of Brazil, where sugar cane fields were not profitable in terms of production volume and quality. For this reason, farmers and producers have invested in irrigation, especially the drip method, which is highly water efficient and more environmentally sustainable. This approach has allowed not only to stabilize and increase productivity in tons of sugarcane per hectare (TCH), but also to improve productivity in terms of TAH (tons of sugar per hectare).
Regarding the improvement in TAH production – sugar production – the physiological reason for the crucial role of irrigation in sugarcane ripening is based on the regulation of photosynthesis, which is fundamental for the production and accumulation of sucrose. When well managed, irrigation provides the necessary amount of water to prevent water stress and avoid compromising photosynthesis efficiency and thus sucrose concentration in the stems (ANDRADE, 2006; WATT et al., 2014).
To this end, management can be used as a strategy, such that irrigation is managed for the ripening process, a technique known as desiccation. The idea is to conduct controlled interruptions in irrigation to increase the industrial quality of sugarcane at harvest, and this could be the key to improving ATR levels, which has been a challenge for the North-East region due to adverse weather conditions for sugar production.
Stages of sugarcane development and the ideal period indicator for applying the drying technology. It should be noted that the technology is not fixed and must be modified and monitored according to the climatic conditions and production environment, locally and annually. Studies conducted by Netafim have demonstrated that the drying period can range from 15 to 60 days, with excellent gains when combined with ripening tools, providing higher levels of ATR and TAH compared to interruption of irrigation for 30 consecutive days and without losses in crop productivity. Bronchi. Furthermore, irrigation interruption was favorably better when implemented gradually over time, because it allowed the soil to contain residual moisture, allowing the plant to maintain its physiological processes at a low rate, reducing plant growth in contrast to greater sucrose accumulation in the stems, Avoid isoporization process.
Therefore, to carry out the drip-irrigated sugarcane drying process, it is extremely important that a careful assessment is carried out by a Netafim agronomist in your area, so that the guidelines regarding the required time and its connections to the gradual reduction are established and, in addition to continuous monitoring, are carried out safely and effectively.
Bibliographic references:
Andrade, L. B. (2006). Sugarcane cultivation. In: Cardoso, MG (ed.) Sugarcane Spirit Production. Lavras: UFLA, pp. 25-67.
CONAB, National Supplies Company (2024).
Available at: Accessed Sep/2024.
Gasho, J.J. Xie, S. F. Sugarcane. In: TEARE, id; Peet, M. M. (Ed.). Relationships between crops and water. New York: Wiley Interscience, 1983. p. 445-479.
Sachdeva, M.; Bhatia, S.; Bata, S.K. Sucrose accumulation in sugarcane: a potential target for crop improvement. Acta Physiologiae Plantarum, v. 33, p. 1571-1583, 2011.
Watt, DA. McCormick, AJ. Kramer, M.D. (2014). Source and sink physiology. In PH Moore & FC Botha, FC (Eds.), Sugarcane: Physiology, Biochemistry and Functional Biology. (pp. 483-520). Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.
*Davila Alves, agricultural specialist at Netafim
