Projects
Successful sugar investment halts yield decline
Results: A 13-year, $20 million joint investment led by the Sugar Research and Development Corporation (SRDC) to halt sugarcane yield decline has returned independently-evaluated benefits to industry of $237 million.
Chairman of SRDC Mr Ian Knop said the investment returned a benefit:cost ratio of 7:1 and an internal rate of return of 19 per cent.
SRDC led the investment and was supported by BSES Limited, CSIRO, Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (QDPI&F) and Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Water (DNRW).
The program hinged on successfully integrating legume rotations into sugarcane production systems that involve minimum tillage and controlled traffic.
“Despite the long time period of the investment and its overall magnitude, the investment appears to have been extremely sound and beneficial to the sugar industry,” Mr Knop said.
“A highly effective legume management package including encouraging the uptake of minimal tillage provided the major source of benefits, with zonal and reduced tillage independent of the legume package contributing a smaller part of the total benefits,” he said.
“Growers who have implemented the new farming practices are reporting savings of up to $500 per hectare.”
The Sugar Yield Decline Joint Venture was established in 1993 after yield decline and yield plateaus had been a concern for the sugar industry for a number of years.
The three-phase R,D&E investment began in 1993 and a positive mid-term review in 2002 ensured it will run until December 2009.
The program was evaluated by Agtrans Research Ltd and meets the Australian Government’s national and rural R&D priorities 2007-08.
“The major focus of the investment has been on the first Australian Government rural research priority, productivity improvements,” Mr Knop said.
“The venture is also strongly associated with the first national research priority to achieve an environmentally sustainable Australia, and the aligned rural research priority of natural resource management.
“The investment has also been prominent in servicing the third national research priority of working in frontier technologies and its support for rural research priorities.
“This has been achieved through the building of innovative skills and technologies in the form of the development of new farming systems and the stimulation of an innovative culture.”
Economic, environmental and social benefits include:
- Cane yield increase after the legume crop in the cane plant crop and subsequent ratoon crops, due to improved soil health;
- Savings of nitrogen fertiliser and its application in the cane plant crop and (in part) the first ratoon crop;
- Reduced cultivation costs for the plant cane crop;
- Labour savings and improved timeliness and flexibility of operations;
- Capital savings due to lowered requirements for high powered tractors and tillage equipment; and
- An overall likely reduction in any impact the cane industry could have been having on the water quality and biodiversity of proximate coastal waters and possibly on the Great Barrier Reef.
