Development of Sugar Industry in China: R&D Priorities for Sustainable Sugarcane Production

This paper introduces the status of the sugar industry in China, especially the production of sugarcane, sugarbeet and sugar, as well as achievements in sugarcane breeding, farming technology exploitation and value chain-added by-product development. In recent years, China has planted about 1.6–1.8 Mha of sugar crops and produces about 9–11 MT of sugar, with about 85–91% from sugarcane. Guangxi is an enormous cane and sugar producer, which provides about 60–70% of the total sugar in the country. The production of sugarcane and cane sugar decreased dramatically in the recent two milling seasons, especially in Guangxi, because of continuous severe drought during the fast-growing season, leading to a considerable decline in cane sugar and total sugar production. However, beet sugar production recovered to the level 10 years ago. The sugarcane-planting area is relatively more stable, especially in Guangxi, than sugarbeet production. The sugar recovery has been improved in recent years because of the dramatic progress in sugarcane breeding and new technology development. At present, the elite sugarcane varieties GT42 and GL05136 occupied 28.66% and 28.48%, respectively, of the total sugarcane-growing area in China in 2023, and other main sugarcane varieties, i.e. GT44, GT46, GT49, GT55, GT58, YT93-159, YT55, YZ05-51, YZ08-1609, etc. The domestic breeding sugarcane varieties occupied over 95% of the total sugarcane-growing area in 2023; among them, more than 80% were bred in Guangxi, and GT varieties covered the more extensive sugarcane-planting area in China. For sugarcane production, drought is still the most important abiotic limit. At the same time, smut and borer continue to be the most critical biotic constraints, production cost needs to be lowered, and machine harvest is not popular. The R&D priorities for sustainable sugarcane production in China include creating elite parents by utilizing wild germplasm, breeding high-yield, high-sugar, highly resistant and nitrogen-efficient sugarcane varieties with strong ratoon ability by conventional and biotechnological approaches, promoting the commercial supply of healthy seedcane for millable cane production, and developing mechanical operation for field management, especially for harvest, and applying low-cost and efficient cultivation technologies for sugarcane production, etc.