Sugarcane crop can improve with new sugarcane varieties and this can only achieve through sugarcane research and breeding. JDW is producing its own seed/fuzz through sugarcane flowering and crossing. We normally produce 400 successful crosses each year and achieve excellent germination from the sexual seed. We germinate the seed in specific germination chamber which give excellent results. This year, we have produced 19,000 seedlings successfully through which we are doing the selection process for the varieties.
We are also importing the vegetative seed of varieties from different countries through CIRAD France. From this material, there are few promising sugarcane varieties in the pipeline. The sucrose % ranges from 11% to 12.5% and average yield is 1,000 to 1,200 maunds/acre. We are propagating and multiplying these clones for further planting at mills farms in Punjab and Sindh. Disease resistance is very important in new varieties.
Now, we are producing healthy seed nurseries through hot water treatment technology. Large HWT facilities have been built at JDW mills and we are successfully producing disease free seed nurseries.
We have also start working on drone technology for agriculture use. We will do foliar spray against vine weeds on sugarcane crop when the crop gets long and manual spray becomes impossible. Our aim is to develop drone sprayer for sugarcane crop and get weed free crop at the time of harvest.
