We have been going through a moment of transition in sugarcane productivity in the Center-South region of Brazil. It can be seen that many mills and producers have recently consolidated annual increasing yields, after a worrying decline and a decade of stoppage, in which the average production per area was around 70 to 75 tons of stalks per hectare and the levels of total recoverable sugar, from 128 to 134 kilograms per ton of cane.

There are several reasons for this stagnation:

Unfavorable weather in several subsequent years, with more intense summers and prolonged droughts;
Adaptation to mechanization, with increased losses and plant impurities at harvest and failures and high consumption of seedlings at planting;
Expansion to unfavorable edaphoclimatic environments;
Lengthening of the crushing period, anticipating the start to autumn and postponing the end to December, in both periods sucrose contents are lower, and the productivity of stalks of sugarcane harvested in December is invariably lower in the following harvest;
Aging of the sugarcane field, increasing the average age, with a reduction in the percentage of renewal and planting;
Little renewal of the varietal squad;
Increase in pests and diseases, among others.

Figure 1 illustrates the gaps in sugarcane productivity in the Center-South region of Brazil. Among these various biotic and abiotic factors, we can undoubtedly list the climate, including mainly drought, but also frost and flowering, as the most impactful. There has been great damage caused by pests, including the sphenophorus levis and the occurrence of weeds such as silk grass , among others; but the damage caused by inadequate handling is also significant.

But what actually is agricultural management? It can be defined as the action of technicians and producers in promoting modification, adequacy and interference in the various agricultural processes; influencing production. In this concept, adequate or correct management can consequently collaborate to increase productivity.

Varietal Management could be the first item to be discussed. From the list available, to know in what type of soil such varieties should be cultivated (due to the requirements in fertility and water availability inherent to each one of them) and what period of harvest to be harvested (due to their characteristics of early, medium or late maturation) is a basic foundation in the agronomic area.

Some other tools also fit into this aspect, such as the use of chemical and/or physiological ripeners, aiming to anticipate the maturation of the varieties at the beginning of the harvest, which can generate a proportional increase in the Final Average Total Recoverable Sugar and the use of flowering inhibitors in favorable years, or even aiming to increase the Period of industrial use of some varieties.

Strategically, we also have the management of the chronological and physiological phases of the sugarcane field, consisting of harvest planning in order to increase the age (in months) of the harvested cane, bringing a notorious impact in the increase of tons of stalks per hectare and Total recoverable sugar; as well as the destination of the harvest from the worst environments for the beginning and middle of the season.

The next item would be Nutritional Management. There has been a recent change in the approach to this subject, with the use of fertilization not only thinking of replacing what is extracted by the sugarcane; but also in carrying out "soil conditioning" in order to rationalize the use of nutrients and form a stock of them.

Figure 2 schematically shows that we can better manage nitrogen using split fertilization in the ratoon, as well as supplemental dose via air from the beginning of summer to increase vegetative development and products to increase biological fixation.



As for Potassium, a major advance was the implementation of localized application of vinasse in the ratoon, whether in natura or concentrated, added or not to other inputs such as insecticides, growth promoters and biological products.

We believe that this application modality is a tool that greatly improves the quality of the operation, adding other benefits such as the expansion of the applied area, the reduction of losses due to leaching and even the decrease in the proliferation of the stable fly.

But, apparently, it is in Phosphorus that we will have great impacts of an adequate handling, when we increase its availability, compensating the adsorption ( Legacy P ) inherent of our soils.

The elevation of phosphorus pentoxide levels in our soils to levels above 15 parts per million, either through the use of solubilizers, or with corrective phosphating through the use of phosphate fertilizers or natural rocks; this is one of the examples that occurred in the area of grains that we must now also follow in sugarcane.

Another important practice is Pest and Disease Management. The concept of Integrated Pest Management has been consolidated in the sector, associating the use of biological agents, such as cotesia and trichogramma wasps (currently released in the crop via drones ) to the beauveria fungus and insecticides to control the borer.

Incidentally, the use of biological agents has greatly increased in the sector, and has become a field that is very much in line with the values of sustainability and the concept of environmental, social and corporate governance.

In disease control, there has also been a significant change in approach, when we started using fungicides in aerial sprays to rust control, in a management that provides a greater photosynthetically active leaf area, by cleaning other leaf diseases as well secondary.

Such systemic fungicides, such as benzimidazoles, triazoles and strobilurins, additionally provide the well-known phytotonic effect of increasing productivity, fitting into what we can call Physiological Management.

In this modality, one can mention the use of humic and fulvic acids, growth and rooting promoters, fungi and bacteria solubilizers of Nitrogen and Phosphorus, and a wide range of new agents that act on the physiology and metabolic processes of the plant, in an interesting interaction that can provide a mitigation of the effects of water and nutritional stress.

Concluding our opinion, in Figure 3 we suggest the magnitude that each of the appropriate managements discussed can potentially increase productivity in our sugarcane fields.

We also introduced other tools, such as automation and the use of new products and inputs. Note that, in this estimate, on average it is possible to move, in a short time, from a current level of around 10 to 13 tons of sugar per hectare. Hard but not impossible. There are already some mills and producers with these brands.

"Who lives will see."