Breeding and sustainable crop management as the basis for competitiveness of sugar cane production in argentina

The paper presents main research lines and contributions of INTA for sustaining productivity and competitiveness of sugar cane in Argentina. There are three confluent approaches: the design and construction of ideotypes through breeding, sustainable integrated crop management and complementary actions directed to promote and increase efficiency and quality of products and processes. Results are presented and commented in regard to the potential of new varieties being developed, constraints of the genetic bases for breeding and progress in the understanding of expressions for quality and resistance attributes in selection progenies. Most of the varieties cultivated in Argentina are susceptible to ratoon stunting disease (RSD), however, Hydro Thermo Therapy (HTT) has shown to be highly effective in its control in commercial seed cane and is being adopted extensively for ‘cleaning’. The convenience for crop rotation (sugar cane-soybean) is supported with field and economic results. Complementary research reports on the adaptability of varieties to green harvesting, and GIS detection of risk areas or other strategic information to help decisions at the farms level. Significant progress in the effective adoption of new technologies are also presented and discussed as well as its impact in productivity in recent years.