Abstract
Brazil is the world’s largest producer of sugarcane and one of the leading suppliers of sugar and ethanol worldwide. In the 2019–2020 crop season, the country produced 642.7 million tons of sugarcane in a harvest area of 8.44 million hectares. Historically, sugarcane breeding has contributed continuously to increasing yields by regularly releasing superior cultivars for use by the Brazilian industry. In the last 40 years, an average annual increase of 155.7 kg ha−1 of sugar yield has been reported, about half of which may be attributed to breeding programs. However, due to the size of the country, the intensive expansion of the crop to low-fertility soils in the last few years, especially in degraded pasture areas, and the widespread adoption of mechanization, new challenges have been imposed on national breeding programs. This review covers the current situation with sugarcane breeding in Brazil and the main advances that have allowed the country to maintain world leadership in developing the industry. Additionally, the history of sugarcane breeding, current national breeding institutions, germplasm development, key breeding objectives, selection stages and methodologies are summarized. An overview is also presented of biotechnological approaches which have become key tools for improving Brazilian traditional breeding programs. The adoption of strategies to increase Brazilian sugarcane yield, aiming to consolidate crop production in a food and energy matrix, is also discussed.
Highlights
Brazil is the world’s largest producer of sugarcane and one of the leading suppliers of sugar and ethanol worldwide
The Brazilian Panel of Sugarcane Genotypes (BPSG) has been expanded and is evaluating SNP markers with single and multiple dosage information. These results showed the advances in molecular studies of sugarcane in Brazil, including different molecular markers, populations with different genetic backgrounds and analysis approaches
Most expansions occurred in ‘‘nontraditional’’ regions, mostly those with low-fertility soils and low and/or irregular rainfall, challenging the resilience of this crop; in association with new diseases, accelerated adoption of mechanical harvesting and less investment in sugarcane field a nonsignificant change in yield can be observed in the last decade (Fig. 2)
Summary
In the 1990s, a Brazilian program began an introgression project with Erianthus, with E. arundinaceus, in the search for clones that maintained the current sucrose levels and presented high agricultural productivity, with upright architecture, higher fiber content, excellent sprouting, greater resistance to pests and tolerance to saline soils, drought and cold. Sugarcane breeding programs seek to obtain new varieties that are more favorable to different growing conditions, by maximizing the presence of desirable traits This is a complex process due to several factors, such as the long cycle of generating a new variety, which can extend from 10 to 15 years (Gazaffi et al 2010, 2016; de Morais et al 2015). Knowledge of the crop and the prospecting ability are essential for the breeder in the development of a future variety (de Morais et al 2015)
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