Technology has always been a sought-after tool in different sectors of the modern world, and it could not be different when it comes to agribusiness. The incessant use of mechanisms that increase productivity, product quality, efficient logistics, among others, has placed Brazil in a prominent position in the world agricultural scenario.

Brazil is the world's largest producer of sugarcane; along with the title, there are the challenges that accompany the growth and leadership of the country. Among these challenges, some deserve to be highlighted, such as the reduction of arable land and the need to improve the productivity of agricultural crops. The sugarcane crop has characteristics that make the sanitary quality of the seedling of particular importance.

It is a vegetatively propagated species, therefore more susceptible to the transmission of diseases such as mosaic, ratoon stunting, leaf scald, charcoal and red streak, diseases propagated by seedlings. The sugarcane sector has evolved due to extensive research in the development and use of products in the industrial area, in addition to agricultural innovations. However, some practices did not follow this evolutionary scenario, including the use of stalks (grinding wheels) as a propagative unit for installing the sugarcane field, whose method dates back to the introduction of the culture in Brazil.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of renewal areas, approximately 70%, are still planted with "seedlings" originating from commercial sugarcane fields, which are vehicles for introducing diseases from the beginning of cultivation, which can harm the productivity and longevity of the crop in the future. field by up to 30%. With the deployment of sugarcane plantations using pre-sprouted seedlings, this problem is minimized, but only with techniques such as meristem culture can we attest to the production of seedlings that are truly disease-free.

In the production of sanitary quality seedlings, the role of automation is evident, since equipment, techniques and qualified personnel are used. The culture of meristems involves, in summary, the stages of thermotherapy, indexing and micropropagation, promoting the cleaning of propagating material, that is, the production of seedlings free from diseases, such as ratoon rickets, sugarcane mosaic virus. sugarcane yellow fever virus.

Furthermore, from a single apical meristem, thousands of seedlings can be produced in a period of six months. The technique has even led to the implementation of biofactories in the United States, Europe and Asia, providing an annual production of seedlings of high genetic and sanitary quality.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, annual losses in agriculture are in the order of 314 billion dollars with pests and diseases in six countries, including Brazil.

Ideal climate conditions and agricultural crops in almost the entire national territory, practically all year round, make the country a reservoir of disease-causing agents whose damages lead to losses, when not controlled, of up to 100%. These losses are disastrous when one takes into account the cost of production and the level where Brazil finds itself, among the countries exporting agricultural products, ceasing to be a competitor and generating an economic deficit.

Diseases are limiting factors of production and have been of concern since the beginning, when agriculture was still subsistence. With the much-needed revolutions that took place in agriculture, the development of science on pathogens and their relationships with plants was consolidated, as well as the management of diseases through different forms of control that better contemplated the different pathosystems.

Some innovations in disease management have been developed. A technology recently presented for the control of red rot disease, caused by the fungus Colletotrichum falcatum , is the so-called Probiotic Consortium Technology. The Probiotic Consortium Technology is a technology for stabilizing microorganisms, generating solutions based on ecosystems or microbiomes created from these stabilizations.

Solutions may be of microorganisms, metabolites, or both. According to researcher José Melhado Sanches, a member of the project, in vitro studies attested that the use of Probiotic Consortium Technology to control Colletotrichum falcatum obtained control above 80% in all dosages, on the sixth day, and, on the twelfth day, above 90%.

Field studies are being conducted to corroborate those carried out in the laboratory. Noting that the use of Probiotic Consortium Technology can control the fungus in sugarcane crops affected by this pathogen, it will be an important tool in the control of the fungus, which can cause loss of 50 to 70% of sucrose in stalks attacked simultaneously by the fungus and the sugarcane borer, in addition to reducing the productivity and quality of the raw material.

Such information suggests that it is possible that the preventive application carried out in the soil can help in the control of Colletotrichum and other diseases, in addition to increasing productivity. Only with evolutions of these levels, we can reach triple-digit productivity levels in expressive areas of cultivation and improve the longevity of the culture in the field.