Results of nine post-emergence herbicide phytotoxicity experiments are reported. The experiments were conducted on medium to heavy soils at Pongola in the northern irrigated part of the industry or on light soils at Shakaskraal on the Natal north coast. Tests were conducted using the recommended rates of herbicide combinations and double these rates, applied directly over the sugarqane foliage ...

The transporting sugarcane from cane fields to a mill factory is a potential cost in sugarcane logistics. The poorly operating vehicle (six-wheel truck) services and transportation lot size results in lost or excess of cane supplied. In this paper, we consider the integrated districting problem of whole cane field region and transportation lot size of each cane field. We formulate the combining...

In many crop producing areas of the world there are reports of yield decline and loss of productive potential in soils. Little is known about the long term effects of sugarcane monocropping on changes in physical, chemical and biological properties of soils. The aim of this study was to quantify the physical and chemical condition of soils under sugarcane production in northern Kwazulu-Natal, a...

Standard nutritional advice for irrigated sugarcane in South Africa and Swaziland is based on soil sample analysis and threshold values that have been determined experimentally over many years with surface-applied fertilisers. Fertilisers are normally applied in solid form during the early stages of crop development and watered in by the next irrigation cycle. The increasing popularity of subsu...

Introduction Approximately 53,000 acres of sugarcane are grown under irrigation in the low-rainfall regions north of Mtubatuba, mainly at Pongola and in the Eastern Transvaal. The number of acres which limited supplies of irrigation water should serve in these areas has not been clearly defined. The area in acres to be irrigated with one cusec of water pumped or available at the source, for a g...

The global optimization of parameters in process-based crop models is often considered computationally expensive. Gaussian process (GP) emulation a widely used method for reducing the computational burden process. Total above-ground biomass and cane dry weight three Thai sugarcane cultivars (KK3, LK92-11 02-2-058) collected under rainfed irrigated conditions were to optimize cultivar-specific A...

A 2-year field study was conducted in northern Greece to investigate the effect of nitrogen fertilization and irrigation on productivity of three Greek chickpea varieties (“Amorgos” “Serifos”, “Andros”). Chickpea, grown under irrigation regime (30 + 30 mm of water) and fertilized with 50 kg·N·ha−1 before planting and with 40 kg·N·ha−1 at blossom growth stage, produced more total dry biomass and...

A two-phase field experiment on the effect of N application was studied on growth, yield and quality of seed cane of sugarcane variety, B41/227 at Finchaa Sugarcane Plantation during 2000/2001 and 2002/2003 cropping years. Thirty two treatments comprised of four N levels – 0, 46, 92 and 138kg/ha, and applied at 2 1 /2, 5 and 7 1 /2 months after planting in whole and split applications were used...

Mannitol, formed mainly by Leuconostoc mesenteroides bacteria, is a very sensitive indicator of sugarcane deterioration that directly affects processing and can predict problems from dextran and levan polysaccharides. An enzymatic method has been developed to measure mannitol in juice pressed from consignments of sugarcane delivered to the factory. This screening tool will allow factory staff t...

Sporisorium scitamineum is a fungal smut pathogen epidemic in sugarcane producing areas. Early detection and proper identification of the smut are an essential requirement in its management practice. In this study, we developed a TaqMan real-time PCR assay using specific primers (bEQ-F/bEQ-R) and a TaqMan probe (bEQ-P) which were designed based on the bE (b East mating type) gene (Genbank Acces...