|
|
|
 |
|
African agency aim to reap success from local cane
1/3/2010
SUGAR CANE grown by a regional organisation based in Barbados is proving a sweet success externally.
Officials of Nigeria’s National Sugar Development Council have reported plans to improve 30 sugar cane varieties from the West Indies Central Sugar Cane Breeding Station (WICSCBS) based at Groves, St. George, having already bought some last year and a few months ago.
Other countries are also benefiting from the work done by WICSCBS.
According to the African agency, the purchase of the varieties was part of a continuing plan to boost that country’s sugar production.
“The sugar cane imported has certain qualities that our research institutes will like to extract and put them into our own, that is the purpose of the breeding programme we are talking about. This importation will serve two purposes: We will have a shorter period of time, high yielding acceptable varieties that is doing better than the one we have in the fields now. Last year, we imported 30 varieties from Barbados, [and] 30 more are arriving this October making 60, 30 more will arrive next year,” the organisation noted.
The WICSCBS itself said that last year it was able to negotiate and secure four new contracts, including one with Nigeria, Nicaragua and Panama.
“Contracts are offered for specified services to sugar industries outside of the Caribbean. Payment for this service is made based on the average sugar production calculated from the three years prior to the signing of the contract. It is possible to include the provision of seed from the crossing programme in these contracts, but this is negotiated separately,” the Barbados-based entity explained.
It noted that once a contract is established, WICSCBS staff could make visits to contracted members, but that the expense of these visits had to be born by the member country.
Funding for the WICSCBS is currently attained from contributions by the Sugar Association of the Caribbean (SAC) member countries of Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St. Kitts, Jamaica and Belize.
The organisation is guided by a Technical Committee comprising the Directors of Research of each of the SAC member industries. WICSCBS also receives limited funding from subscriptions paid by its Associate Members viz. Dominican Republic, Panama, Costa Rica, Sudan, Senegal and a few other countries in Africa and Asia.
Additionally, the station also maintains a strong relationship with the Centre de Co-opération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), France, in the areas of varietal exchange, quarantine and molecular research involving sugar cane.
Officials said WICSCBS’s goal was to breed superior varieties of sugarcane to cater to the needs of the various member countries, and that the organisation had produced several superior varieties of sugarcane that drive the sugar industries of member countries.
It has one of the largest “sugar cane germplasm” collections in the world, with more than 3 000 “unique clones” maintained on 16 hectares of land.
Email
us your comments. | Top
|
|
|
|
|
