Virus-free sugarcane seedlings: giving cane plants a head start
Editor's note: China is a major sugarcane producer, and 90% of its sugarcane is sugar cane. According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture's "2015-2020 Production Development Plan for Major Sugar Cane Producing Areas", the national sugar cane area totals 27.25 million mu, with a total output of 128.2 million tons, and the coverage rate of virus-free seedlings is less than 4%. Production practice at home and abroad has proven that the application and promotion of virus-free seedlings is the key to increasing sugarcane yield and improving quality. In order to shorten the distance from being a major sugarcane country to a strong one, many people are working hard and keeping busy. Today we have selected two of them, to see how they personally practice and offer suggestions for the revitalization of the sugarcane industry……
Promotion
Farmers rush to pull seedlings——A record of CATAS researcher Yang Benpeng promoting virus-free sugarcane seedlings
"Professor Yang, can your sugarcane yield go up?" On August 20, at an on-site observation and training session on sugarcane cultivation techniques in Bapen Village, Fusui County, Chongzuo City, Guangxi, a sugarcane grower asked with a face full of doubt.
"See for yourself. The sugarcane you plant yields 4 to 5 tons per mu, while our sugarcane is thick and strong, 7 to 8 tons per mu, and some even 9 tons." Yang Benpeng, a researcher at the Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (hereinafter referred to as CATAS), answered with a smile.
"Is this first-generation seedling?" After receiving a positive answer, another grower said with a smile, "I didn't expect the first generation to be so thick. The ones I planted the year before last only grew as thick as vines. We all thought first- and second-generation seedlings couldn't be used."
"Why can't the first generation work? That's because the seedlings were not grown well. Look, our virus-free healthy seedlings are already this good in the first generation, and later they will certainly get better and better!" Looking at this group of plain sugarcane growers before him, Yang Benpeng said with full confidence.
Starting research from zero
Over 30 years of work, Yang Benpeng has never left the front line of poverty alleviation through science and technology, with footprints across the mountainous areas of Hainan, Guangxi, and Yunnan. How can farmers in mountainous areas truly escape poverty? Yang Benpeng believes it depends on industry.
Yang Benpeng thought of the sugarcane industry. Sugarcane is China's largest tropical cash crop and the main raw material for sugar production. Sugar is a necessity for human growth and life, and also an important raw material for the energy industry. Developing sugarcane production plays an important role in improving people's lives, promoting agricultural development, and even the development of the entire national economy.
Starting in 2001, Yang Benpeng plunged into research on virus-free sugarcane seedlings. At that time, at CATAS, no one was researching sugarcane, so everything had to start from zero.
Solving the problem of variety degeneration
The degeneration of sugarcane varieties is one of the main bottlenecks restricting the development of China's sugarcane industry. To make the sugarcane industry bigger and stronger, the first problem to solve is variety degeneration.
"Normal sugarcane seedlings become diseased after 5 consecutive years of planting, while the sugarcane selection and breeding process generally takes more than 10 years, and even the fast ones take 8 to 9 years." Yang Benpeng admitted that this means the sugarcane varieties we breed are already diseased, directly affecting sugarcane yield and sugar content. Virus-free seedlings, however, can restore the characteristics of the mother plant, carry no disease, and naturally yield more than non-virus-free ones.
The sugarcane virus elimination process is complicated: cutting stems, comprehensive treatment, disinfection and sterilization, peeling off growth points, induction culture, proliferation and rapid propagation…… Yang Benpeng smiled bitterly and said that with a little carelessness, one had to start over. It is common to test one data point dozens of times. For example, during warm water treatment, if the water temperature is too high, the sugarcane buds will be scalded to death; if disinfection is not thorough, it will cause contamination of the growth points, and the final result is no seedlings. At that time, the entire laboratory assets were one ultra-clean workbench plus two researchers.
Getting started was not easy, and innovation was even less easy. For each step, there was no experience to refer to, so one could only explore bit by bit. For more than half a year before and after, they consulted various domestic and foreign literature and tried dozens of methods, yet still failed to produce virus-free seedlings.
Yang Benpeng was especially anxious. At that time he also held an administrative post, and had to work in Danzhou from Monday to Friday, so he could only rush back to the Haikou laboratory on weekends to do research. After another month of back-and-forth exploration, the first batch of virus-free seedlings finally grew out.
Supporting production technology is indispensable
Sugarcane production is a complete industrial chain. Having solved the pre-production problem of virus-free seedlings, the next step was to solve mid-production issues such as large-scale transplanting, field propagation, and supporting cultivation.
On an open space in the Haikou campus, Yang Benpeng built a greenhouse and set up a sugarcane experimental field. The virus-free sugarcane seedlings from the laboratory were propagated here. Every day he squatted in the sugarcane field, carefully checking the growth of each seedling and marking them.
Under his careful care, the virus-free sugarcane seedlings cultivated with 3 transplanting techniques - greenhouse transplanting and temporary planting, open-air bare-root transplanting and temporary planting, and open-air plug tray transplanting and temporary planting - achieved survival rates of 98%, 95%, and 98%, respectively.
After two years of field trials, virus-free sugarcane seedlings could already be produced on a large scale. Yang Benpeng then found a plot of land in Huangtong Town, Lingao County, Hainan, and established a high-yield sugarcane demonstration base. In this field, he began research and development of supporting production technology.
"Sugarcane cultivation is complicated work: ditching, applying base fertilizer, backfilling soil, installing drip lines, covering plastic film, transplanting, watering to settle roots……" said Cai Wenwei, a member of the sugarcane research team. Yang Benpeng has particularly strong hands-on ability and personally takes part in every step.
Yang Benpeng had a calculation in his heart: "There are many steps in sugarcane production and cultivation. If each step can be improved a little and save a little, planting costs will be reduced considerably, and farmers' returns will truly increase."
"Whatever is measured is what it is"
In December 2008, the Hainan Provincial Department of Science and Technology organized experts to conduct an on-site acceptance inspection of field cultivation of virus-free sugarcane seedlings. Yang Benpeng said that usually on-site appraisal takes 20 samples from one field, checks how many effective stalks there are, measures average plant height, and then uses a formula to calculate the sugarcane yield of that field. This method measures theoretical yield, and sample selection is highly random, with errors and low data accuracy.
"Research needs solid data. Long or short, thick or thin, cut them all down and measure. Whatever is measured is what it is." Yang Benpeng led more than ten young men, under the scorching sun, and took a whole day to finish cutting nearly ten thousand jin of sugarcane from more than 10 trial plots.
After weighing, the statistics showed that the virus-free New Taitang No. 22 sugarcane seedlings developed by Yang Benpeng's team yielded 8,320 kg per mu, an increase of 26% over non-virus-free seedlings, which yielded 6,612 kg per mu.
This technology also won the second prize of the Hainan Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award in 2009, with the overall results reaching the international advanced level. Using this set of techniques to plant sugarcane can increase yield by more than 20%, increase sugar content by 0.5 to 1 percentage point, and also save more than 60% of seed cane.
"Planting sugarcane this way is very promising!"
"No matter how well you say it, seeing is believing. If they can't see the results, no amount of talking to farmers will help." In order to expand the promotion area as quickly as possible and benefit ordinary people, Yang Benpeng resigned from posts including assistant to the president of CATAS and began traveling nonstop to sugarcane-producing areas such as Hainan, Guangxi, and Yunnan, negotiating with enterprises, cooperating with agricultural technology departments, and building high-yield sugarcane demonstration bases.
In Chongzuo, Guangxi, the eye meets a vast sea of sugarcane. The sugarcane planting area here accounts for one-fifth and one-quarter of the national and Guangxi totals, respectively. Yang Benpeng cooperated with Guangxi Kangtian Company to establish a thousand-mu demonstration base in Fusui County, Chongzuo City.
"It is rare to see seedlings grow so well." The thick, high-yield virus-free sugarcane seedlings quickly attracted local farmers. At the demonstration base in Kangzhong Village, nearby farmers drove ox carts and rushed to pull seedlings. After trial planting, yields generally exceeded 7 tons per mu, and some even exceeded 12 tons.
The villagers unanimously believed, "Planting sugarcane this way is very promising!" At present, Yang Benpeng has established more than 150 demonstration bases (sites) of various types in Hainan, Guangxi, Yunnan, and other places, and trained 15,000 person-times of various personnel. The comprehensive technology of virus-free sugarcane seedlings has borne fruit in sugarcane areas. Over 7 years, it has been promoted and applied cumulatively on more than 590,000 mu, with an average yield increase of 2 tons per mu and sugarcane farmers' net income increasing by more than 700 yuan per mu.
In order to make the sugarcane industry bigger and stronger, Yang Benpeng formed a sugarcane research team and successively carried out research on sugarcane genetic modification, mechanization, and nanocellulose extraction, striving to extend the sugarcane industrial chain and increase added value.
Over 30 years in the profession, Yang Benpeng has successively received many honors, including being named an advanced individual in the first national science, technology, culture, and health "Three Goes to the Countryside" activity, a national advanced worker in science and technology poverty alleviation, the national Zhenhua Science and Technology Poverty Alleviation Award, and a national advanced individual in agriculture, but what he values more are the real income increase figures of farmers.