Grain multinational with eyes on sugarcane
Folha de S. Paulo
Traditional in the areas of soybean and corn, the Swiss multinational Syngenta is more and more looking towards the sugarcane. As it completes ten years, the company announces it will invest US$ 100 million in sector in the next decade and it seeks doubling the productivity of sugarcane in the next 20 years. Still in 2011, Syngenta will offers plants and producer small gems that - as already occurs with soy and corn - may be planted with the use of machines. Those 4-centimeter gems are the part located in the internode of the buds. One sugar cane has, on average, 15 gems.
Technology developed by a Brazilian scientist, the new method attracted the attention of plants and producers that have already placed orders worth US$ 200 million. The company will deliver producers the gems treated with chemicals and other substances so that they do not lose moisture and have growth. Once the first step is taken, the investments of the multinational continue with the purpose of increasing the production of sugarcane.
Antonio Carlos M. Guimarães, President of Syngenta Proteção de Cultivos (crop protection) in Latin America, explains the pursuit of greater production goes through the combination of three factors. One is the use of agrochemicals allow the increase of agricultural productivity. Another: the use of biotechnology to elevate the sugar content. The increased productivity also goes through the use of the sugarcane straw, which will generate more second generation alcohol. "With that, we believe we can double the agricultural production in 20 years. Produce more sugar to double the ethanol production as well", says the Executive. The increase in the industrial yield will allow greater production with the same area of sugarcane, he says.
"We are working on genetic sugarcane operations that will be probably released between 2018 and 2020. Besides the Research Center in the country, the company will have already advanced researches in other countries that will be brought to Brazil. " Those genetic operations will allow the metabolism of the sugarcane to be deceived by genetic changes, causing the plant to produce 20% to 40% more sugar, which will also generate more ethanol.