Sugar Tech最新文献

Abiotic stresses such as salinity, drought, and chilling negatively affect plant growth, development and yield. To adapt to the stresses, plants have evolved multiple defense mechanisms. Small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO), an ubiquitin-like protein modifier, plays an important role in regulating plant response to abiotic stresses. Sugar beet has strong stress tolerance and is a good material for mining stress-tolerant genes. Through genome-wide analysis, 28 members of the sugar beet SUMO system were identified. The members were classified, and their structures and evolutionary relationships were analyzed. Through the transcriptional analysis of the gene expression patterns under five abiotic stresses including salt (200 mM NaCl), alkali (pH = 9.2), drought (20% PEG 6000), heat (40 °C) and chilling (4 °C), the potential functions of the sugar beet SUMO system may be inferred. This study has laid a foundation for further functional studies of the SUMO system and improving crop stress tolerance using the sugar beet resource.

This study evaluates the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives undertaken by sugar mills on farmers’ welfare, with a specific focus on six sustainable development goals (SDGs): poverty alleviation (SDG 1), food security (SDG 2), good health and well-being (SDG 3), quality education (SDG 4), gender equality (SDG 5), and economic growth (SDG 8). Using survey data from 571 farmers across four districts in Northern India, analyzed through Smart PLS software, the study assesses CSR-driven interventions. The findings reveal improvement in socioeconomic indicators, benefiting nearly 50 million farmers and dependents. Notable outcomes include a 30–40% reduction in water usage through improved irrigation methods and the production of 3.2 billion liters of ethanol, supporting renewable energy initiatives. Additionally, CSR efforts have enhanced sustainable farming practices such as intercropping and waste recycling, contributing to rural development and environmental sustainability. These results underscore the crucial role of CSR in fostering inclusive growth and advancing sustainability in the sugar industry.

Aiming to address the accuracy problem of cane tip recognition in complex natural environments, this paper proposes a cane tip feature annotation method based on the growth characteristics of sugarcane. In the context of the demand for lightweight and fast detection of cane tips, this paper optimizes the Yolov8n-Seg model with lightweight shared convolutional separated batch normalized detection head, model pruning, and knowledge distillation strategies. With these improvements, the accuracy of the optimized model increased by 0.2 percentage points, the number of parameters was reduced by 75.03%, the model size was reduced by 70.15%, the inference time is accelerated by 17.34%, and the GFLOPs were reduced by 40.00%. The lightweight cane tip detection model was deployed on the Jetson Orin NX platform with an average recognition frame rate of 7.42 f/s provides a lightweight hardware deployment solution for real-world applications in sugarcane harvesters. Finally, the depth camera was used for cane tip recognition and height measurement. The experimental results showed that the average relative errors of the camera were 0.189%, 0.675%, and 0.949% when the camera was 50 cm, 75 cm, and 100 cm away from the cane tip, respectively, which were all controlled within 1%, and were able to achieve accurate height measurement. Based on the statistical analysis of sugarcane clusters, this paper further proposes a sugarcane cluster identification method, providing a theoretical basis for saving adjustment time of the tip cutter during the harvesting process. It lays a theoretical and technical foundation for researching feature recognition, cutter height positioning, and real-time control of sugarcane harvester cuttings.

Climate change is a reality, which has implied the presence of more frequent and more intense extreme climatic phenomena. This study analyzed the incidence of drought risk on the panela sugarcane (‘Panela’ stands for raw sugarcane), one of the most promising crops in Colombia. The threat was calculated using the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), which measures the incidence of drought. The results showed that in the study area there is a probability of drought occurrence throughout the year. A vulnerability analysis was then carried out, which indicated a high susceptibility of this crop to water shortage. The risk map prepared shows an intermediate category in most of the territory of the study area, a low risk in the extreme north and south, and a high risk in the southeastern area. It is concluded that the crop could obtain better yields in the northern zone, since it is the least affected in the most critical period of the year. It is also recommended that an irrigation system be implemented for the sugarcane crops located in the other zones of the municipality.

Prebiotics have garnered significant attention as food supplements to support human health and serve as a preventive measure against various health disorders. Among these, xylooligosaccharides (XOS) stand out as promising non-digestible, low-molecular-weight prebiotics that promote gut microbiota and offer other secondary health benefits, including immunomodulatory, anticancer, antimicrobial, growth-regulating, and antioxidant effects as well. Despite extensive research on the potential of XOS as a potent prebiotic and therapeutic agent, a gap remains in understanding the precise mechanisms of their function. Moreover, their public use has not advanced significantly, primarily due to limitations in cost-effective production strategies. Further improvements are needed to scale the methods for the production from lab-scale to commercial-scale. This review aims to summarize existing reports and provide a comprehensive overview, helping to further research into the economical production of XOS using low-cost substrates. This will facilitate the transition of these oligosaccharides from the laboratory to the market. Additionally, studies exploring their potential as bioactive compounds have also been discussed to understand their structural–function relationship and broaden their application in various sectors.

Bioethanol is a vital biofuel due to its significant environmental and economic benefits. The cost-effective production of this product is largely determined by the selection of raw materials and the production technologies. The study focuses on bioethanol generation from concentrated juice extracted from fruit wastes of pineapple, mango, pawpaw, and watermelon through anaerobic fermentation and controlled distillation. Physical pre-treatments improved juice extraction from fruit wastes, which were fermented with 600 gm of sorghum and distilled to produce bioethanol. Results show that bioethanol from pineapple waste juice had the highest ethanol content of 36%, followed by mango, pawpaw, and watermelon wastes at 20%, 15%, and 6%, respectively, for the initial aliquot of 100 mL. The initial aliquot of 100 mL of fruit waste juice contained 25% ethanol, the second highest value after pineapple. Bioethanol obtained from the initial distillation was subjected to re-distillation for quality improvement. Re-distillation significantly improved the quality of bioethanol, increasing its ethanol content from 6—36% to 89%. The study aimed to produce biofuel in the form of bioethanol using fruit wastes as a primary feedstock. By utilizing commonly discarded FWs, the research sought to create an efficient and sustainable method of bioethanol production. This approach not only addresses waste management issues but also explores the potential of fruit waste as a low-cost, renewable resource for biofuel, contributing to both environmental sustainability and energy security.

This paper examined the price dynamics and market integration in wholesale and retail sugar markets of India using monthly data from the Food and Agriculture Organization for four major markets from 2014–2015 to 2023–2024. Understanding these dynamics across spatially separated markets is crucial for developing policies that enhance market efficiency and promote sustainable growth. Various analytical tools were employed viz. compound annual growth rate, instability index, seasonal price index, correlation analysis, Johansen’s co-integration test, and Granger causality test and impulse response function. The analysis demonstrated that the selected sugar markets exhibit suboptimal integration due to limited market intelligence, slow information flow and inadequate infrastructure. An upward trend was observed in sugar prices in all the markets over the study period. Seasonal price fluctuations were observed, linked to the crushing season and higher demand during summer months. Co-integration analysis confirmed a long-run equilibrium, Granger causality test revealed unidirectional, bidirectional and no causality price influence between the markets. Moreover, impulse response analysis concluded relatively well interconnected markets with potential inefficiencies, particularly in Patna market. This study uniquely highlights the interplay between market efficiency and seasonal fluctuations in the Indian sugar sector, providing a nuanced understanding of spatial integration and its policy implications. To enhance market integration and price convergence, policy recommendations include modernizing marketing systems, fostering public–private partnerships, improving infrastructure, strengthening supply chains and facilitating external trade.

Sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV) is recognized as an economically important virus in global sugarcane cultivation. Herein, real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was applied for the detection of SCMV isolates in samples collected from sugarcane fields in Khuzestan province (southwest Iran). For this purpose, a primer pair was designed and validated through gradient PCR. Moreover, the sensitivity and efficiency of the primers were assayed using RT-PCR. A total number of 25 Iran-originated SCMV coat protein (CP) nucleotide sequences were subjected to phylogenetic and polymorphism analysis. Non-synonymous (dN) and synonymous (dS) substitution rates and dN/dS ratio were calculated. The SCMV isolates were placed in different clusters of the phylogenetic tree. Haplotype and nucleotide diversity were calculated as 1.000 and 0.02190, respectively. The mean nucleotide differences were 19.447. Insertion–deletion polymorphism was not observed. The rates of dN and dS were calculated as − 2.57559 (p < 0.001) and  − 0.59514 (p > 0.10), respectively. The dN/dS ratio was 4.32769 and at least 11 recombination events were observed. The codon usage bias (CUB) indices were determined and the results showed a significant positive correlation (p < 0.005) between G + C and G + C3S. Also, the possible effects of mutation pressure in shaping CUB were determined. The mean ENC ranged from 50.316 to 54.970 indicating less orientation in codon usage. The maximum RSCU was 2.82 for the CCA codon (proline) with a high preference for that codon compared to other synonymous codons of that amino acid. The results demonstrate that SCMV CP from Iran-originated isolates exhibit genetic variation and are under selection pressure.

Under natural aphid infestation, the biochemical influence of yellow sugarcane aphid (YSA) feeding was ascertained. The objective of the study was to investigate biochemical resistance in commercial sugarcane (Saccharum species hybrids) cultivars in retort to (YSA) (Sipha flava) injury. With seven sugarcane cultivars (00–1165, ZN 3L, ZN 8, ZN 9, 96–1107, N14, and ZN 10) under two treatments of aphid infestation (un-infested (control) and infested), a 7 × 2 factorial in a complete randomized block design (CRBD) replicated four times was utilized. Results showed that there were significant differences (p < 0.05) among the sugarcane varieties in leaf nitrogen content and protein content. ZN 9 sugarcane variety recorded the highest leaf nitrogen content (2.49) which was a 32.5% increase in response to aphid infestation in summer. Moreover, the least leaf nitrogen leaf content (2.13) which constitutes a 16% decrease in nitrogen leaf content in response to YSA incursion was obtained on ZN 10. Nevertheless, there were no significant differences (p > 0.05) in the phosphorous, potassium content, magnesium, and calcium among the sugarcane varieties in aphid-infested plots in both winter and summer seasons. Outcomes of the regression analysis revealed a highly significant (p < 0.001) strong positive correlation (r = 0.90) between aphid number and percentage chlorophyll change in summer. Moreover, highly significant differences (p < 0.001) were recorded on total soluble sugar content in control and YSA-infested plots in summer. In aphid-infested plots, 00–1165 sugarcane variety recorded the highest (25.39) soluble sugar content, while N14 scored the lowest (8.13). Regression results showed a strong highly significant (p < 0.001) modest positive correlation (r = 0.80) between aphid number and total soluble sugars in summer. The study concluded that the degree of YSA injury is influenced by sugarcane genotypes’ biochemical resistance. Therefore, farmers should add YSA biochemical tolerant varieties into their management programs.

Sugarcane yields can be increased by applying water optimally and utilizing subsurface drip irrigation at the proper depth inside the root zone to maximize irrigation water productivity (IWP). The current study set out to assess the influence of evapotranspiration and sensor-based irrigation along with different depths of subsurface drip laterals on sugarcane yield, juice quality, and irrigation water productivity (IWP). Two crop cycles were used in the experiment, and subsurface drip lateral depths of 20, 25, and 30 cm were used along with five deficit irrigation schedules based on evapotranspiration (ET_c) and soil moisture deficit (SMD) in the soil predicted with the help of sensors for the plant crop (2019–2020) and the ratoon crop (2020–2021). At depths of 25, 30, and 20 cm in the SDI, the yield of commercial cane sugar (CCS) was 13.2, 12.8, and 11.5 mg ha⁻¹, respectively. Reduced water stress led to a considerable increase in cane and CCS yields, which were attained by targeted irrigation scheduling tactics. The irrigation water productivity (IWP) was significantly lower at a drip depth of 20 cm compared to depths of 25 and 30 cm, primarily due to increased evaporation losses at the shallow depth. The study showed that sensor-based SMD irrigation scheduling in plant and ratoon sugarcane crops under the SDI system is feasible. This knowledge offers helpful advice for increasing crop output, maximizing water management in sugarcane farming, and promoting environmentally friendly farming methods in the area.