Sugarcane Production in China

Abstract

Sugarcane production in China has a prolonged history since fourth century BC. At present , China is the world's third largest sugar producing country after Brazil and India. During the past decade, more than 90% of the sugar production was contributed by sug-arcane. Guangxi is the dominant sugarcane and sugar producer, accounting for 65% of sugar production in China. China's sugarcane production faced serious problems in the past several years, especially the rapid increase in the labor cost because of the manual harvest. Now, China requires changing their sugarcane practice from manual to mechanical in order to catch up with the international trends in worldwide industry. Many other challenges and constraints are becoming severe, including abiotic and biotic stress, cost escalation, over fertilization, poor ratooning, and single cultivar. New technologies will be applied to sugarcane production, including omics-based breeding, best management practices, and so on.