TY - JOUR
T1 - On-farm sugarcane yield and yield components as influenced by number of harvests
AU - Marin, Fábio R.
AU - Rattalino Edreira, Juan Ignacio
AU - Andrade, Jose
AU - Grassini, Patricio
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding sources include the Fulbright program, the Global Engagement Office at the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) , the Brazilian Research Council (CNPq grants 301424/2015-2 , 401662/2016-0 and 425174/2018-2 ), the Research Foundation of the State of São Paulo ( FAPESP 2017/20925-0 ), the FAPESP-UNL SPRINT Program ( 2017/50445-0 ) and the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) . The authors thank the two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their valuable suggestions for improving the article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2019/7/1
Y1 - 2019/7/1
N2 - Sugarcane is the most important sugar crop worldwide, with Brazil accounting for 38% of global production. Recent slowdown in sugarcane annual yield gains in Brazil has been attributed to longer replanting time and associated higher number of ratoon harvests. However, little is known about changes in on-farm sugarcane yield and its components as influenced by number of harvests. In this study, we used a large database collected from commercial sugarcane fields (‘blocks’) to assess the influence of number of harvests on variation in sugar yield and its components: stalk fresh yield (SFY) and sucrose concentration (POL%). Blocks were first clustered based on similarity of climate and soil (hereafter referred as ‘environments’). Influence of number of harvests on sugar yield, SFY, and POL% was evaluated across environments using analysis of variance and quantile and least square regressions. On-farm SFY versus number of harvests trends were compared against existing data collected from well-managed experiments. Variation in sucrose yield across block-years was mostly explained by changes in SFY and, in much lesser degree, by POL%. There was a decline in SFY with number of harvests in all cases; however, rate and magnitude of decline was different across climate-soil domains, with faster yield decline in poor soils and larger yield penalty in the region with relatively short sugarcane cropping history. Still, there was large variation in on-farm yield at any environment x harvest number combination, highlighting the importance of management at explaining current yield gap. Conversely, POL% was not affected by number of harvests and varied little across environments. Analysis of data from well-managed experiments showed no detectable yield decline with increasing number of harvests, suggesting that observed on-farm yield decline is attributable to sub-optimal management in commercial blocks. Findings from this study can help inform policy and management associated with replanting decisions.
AB - Sugarcane is the most important sugar crop worldwide, with Brazil accounting for 38% of global production. Recent slowdown in sugarcane annual yield gains in Brazil has been attributed to longer replanting time and associated higher number of ratoon harvests. However, little is known about changes in on-farm sugarcane yield and its components as influenced by number of harvests. In this study, we used a large database collected from commercial sugarcane fields (‘blocks’) to assess the influence of number of harvests on variation in sugar yield and its components: stalk fresh yield (SFY) and sucrose concentration (POL%). Blocks were first clustered based on similarity of climate and soil (hereafter referred as ‘environments’). Influence of number of harvests on sugar yield, SFY, and POL% was evaluated across environments using analysis of variance and quantile and least square regressions. On-farm SFY versus number of harvests trends were compared against existing data collected from well-managed experiments. Variation in sucrose yield across block-years was mostly explained by changes in SFY and, in much lesser degree, by POL%. There was a decline in SFY with number of harvests in all cases; however, rate and magnitude of decline was different across climate-soil domains, with faster yield decline in poor soils and larger yield penalty in the region with relatively short sugarcane cropping history. Still, there was large variation in on-farm yield at any environment x harvest number combination, highlighting the importance of management at explaining current yield gap. Conversely, POL% was not affected by number of harvests and varied little across environments. Analysis of data from well-managed experiments showed no detectable yield decline with increasing number of harvests, suggesting that observed on-farm yield decline is attributable to sub-optimal management in commercial blocks. Findings from this study can help inform policy and management associated with replanting decisions.
KW - On-farm data
KW - Ratooning
KW - Stalk fresh mass
KW - Sucrose yield
KW - Sugarcane
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U2 - 10.1016/j.fcr.2019.06.011
DO - 10.1016/j.fcr.2019.06.011
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85068378101
SN - 0378-4290
VL - 240
SP - 134
EP - 142
JO - Field Crops Research
JF - Field Crops Research
ER -