Bayer identifies genes that increase sugar cane yield
Valor Econômico
After a decade of researches, Bayer CropScience identified a gene capable of increasing the percentage of Total Sugar Recovered (TSR) - raw material for the production of sugar and ethanol - at the sugar cane plant. With the discovery, the company decided to invest in the transgenic technology for sugar cane, in partnership with the Sugar Cane Technology Center (CTC), located in Piracicaba. Together, the multinational and the CTC will present the new genetically modified event to the National Technical Biosafety Committee (CTNBio) in 2015, in order to place the commercial product in the market in mid-2018.
According to the researches made by the company so far, the new transgenic variety of sugar cane will be capable of increasing from 30% to 40% the amount of TSR per planted hectare. In practice, it will be possible to produce more in one same area of sugar cane, reducing the percentage of water in the plant and increasing the TSR. "One decade ago we researched the fermentation of the sugar cane and the applications in renewable energy". We performed lab tests and we found, in the CTC, a partner that has the greatest and best germplasm bank", says Marc Reichardt, President of Bayer CropScience for Latin America.
According to the Executive, the focus of Bayer in the coming years will be aimed at Brazil, since it is the most technologically developed country in the production of sugar cane. "Nevertheless, we are thinking about taking such technology to other producing countries around the world", he says. From the point of view of the market, Reichardt estimates the new variety developed by Bayer will use between 20% and 30% of the Brazilian planted area after 2020. In the assessment of Nilson Boeta, Director of the CTC, it is possible that the variety takes 50% of the cultivated area in Brazil when the project reaches its maturity. "We are a little more optimistic than Bayer. Today we have nearly 7 million hectares in the country and we believe the area will get to 10 million in 2020", says Boeta.
According to the agreement, the CTC will provide its germplasm bank and Bayer will give the technology it developed. The field research works will be made by the CTC, in Piracicaba, and by Bayer in Paulínia. The commercial aspects of the partnership, as the division of royalties on the use of the technology, are still to be defined. "The sale of the varieties will allow gains for all, but how the division will be made is yet to be defined", says the director of the CTC.
The company does not say in which organism the gene was identified, isolated and removed from in order to be inserted into the sugar cane, nor how much has been invested to get to it over the past few years. Bayer only reveals the organism was a plant and that between 2008 and 2012 € 750 million will be applied in research in the area of biotechnology for all cultures.