Section 2 - Sugar Research and Development Corporation

Section 1
IMPACT OF SRDC INVESTMENT ON R&D OUTCOMES
To remain competitive in world markets, industries must strive to world’s best
practice and SRDC is pivotal in ensuring that the Australian sugar industry
remains effi cient and sustainable while producing quality products demanded
by the market.
SRDC’s 20 year investment in sugarcane research
and development (R&D) has provided Australia
the ability to compete with emerging sugarcane
industries and low production cost competitors
such as Brazil.
In mature industries such as cane sugar, quantum
leaps in research innovation are comparatively
rare. Nevertheless, there has been a considerable
breakthrough in sugarcane production from R&D
funded by SRDC over 20 years.
Cane yields declined noticeably through the
1980s as a result of long term cropping of the
same land to sugarcane – a comprehensive R&D
program demonstrated the role of declining
soil health under cane monoculture (physical
and chemical deterioration of the soil; loss of
benefi cial soil organisms and increase in pests
and diseases of cane).
A new farming system was developed that
integrated minimum tillage, controlled traffi c
and legume break crops with retention of all crop
residues as surface cover. The better farming
system has resulted in considerable cost savings,
increased yields, improved pest and disease
control, and improved environmental outcomes.
Adoption of research outcomes across the
Australian industry is rapid. In 2008, 2009 and
2010, Acil Tasman completed an independent
benefi t cost analysis (BCA) of randomly selected
project outcomes funded by Rural Research
and Development Corporations (RDCs). Results
suggested the return on R&D investment was
8:1 over the longer-term, which equates to
increased returns for the whole industry in the
order of $200m.
Genetic improvement of the sugarcane plant is
supported by SRDC through R&D investment
to produce more cane varieties. Over the past
decade, new cane varieties with high early
Commercial Cane Sugar (CCS) content generated
high returns and the net present value of the
industry. For the past 20 years, SRDC funding
of cane variety improvement projects has
supported sugarcane yield growth, pest disease
resistant varieties, and enabled the time taken
to development of new cane varieties to be
shortened to around three years.
An SRDC funded project produced the world’s
fi rst transgenic sugarcane plants in 1991–1992
and there is ongoing R&D investment on gene
technology to ensure our industry remains at
the forefront of this new arena. Further R&D
investigation of high CCS varieties with high
biomass and disease and pest resistant species
is aimed at signifi cant increases in sugar yield
with concomitant reductions in costs of crop
protection.
SRDC frequently provides R&D funding for
solutions to emerging challenges including
declining CCS in far north Queensland,
sugarcane smut, orange rust, and outbreaks of
cane grubs, weevil borers and cane-fi eld rats.
This R&D is essential to maintain productivity –
without this R&D investment the industry would
decline and even cease to exist in some areas.
Current R&D will better position the industry for
climate change.
SRDC has always balanced its responses to
existing problems with funding to explore and
develop new opportunities. Precision agriculture
is an R&D investment where signifi cant economic
and environmental gains are likely, through
increased effi ciencies and reduced inputs.
SRDC recognises that industries that fail to
respond to changing customer markets are likely
to fail. To this end, several R&D projects focussed
on Australian milling processes were successful
to allow production of high pol raw sugar to
compete with Brazilian sugar products. R&D
has also helped mill areas supply and process
sugarcane fi bre for generating electricity for
export and for production of other products
such as furfural.
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