Project: Improving the capacity of sugar cane breeding in the Caribbean by investing in state-of-the-art laboratory equipment.

Site: Barbados, West Indies Central Sugarcane Breeding Station (WICSCBS)
Rationale: The research in new cane varieties aims at two main parallel issues which are the following:

• Decreasing the time required for identifying and producing a new sugarcane variety whether it is productive or not,

• Trying to find the best variety with either increased sugar or fibre yield (in a co-generation background). 

A variety is highly dependent on the local production conditions. Hence a variety found to be very promising in the Caribbean may perform below standard in other climatic or soil conditions and vice versa. This is the main reason why several sugar breeding stations have to be organised throughout the ACP countries in parallel with exchange and testing programmes.
By way of example, in Reunion, every year, the CERF (eRcane) is creating by natural hybridation 120.000 new varieties starting from a collection of 1000 parents varieties from Reunion or from elsewhere. It is now organised to be able to produce around one new promising commercial sugarcane variety per year.
If the new varieties obtained are promising in terms of agronomic characteristics, then it could give an important economic boost to the sugar cane industry in ACP countries, improving its profitability and competitiveness.
Objectives: The development of new cane varieties with improved performances is accelerated and the number of samples processed in each participating country is increased.
Assumptions/Risks: The main risks and assumptions are presented below: