In focus: Sugar

Achieving agricultural efficiency requires an integrated approach: balancing the complex interaction of seed, soil, machinery and labour, with the variable influences of climate, pests and disease. The UK beet sugar industry is continually searching for new opportunities to improve performance.

Efficiency projects have been undertaken on seed technology, seed drilling and harvesting enabling UK sugar beet farmers to accelerate productivity and increase yields faster than any other UK arable crop.

Over the last three decades, UK sugar beet yields have risen by 60% from 7 tonnes of sugar per hectare to over 11 tonnes per hectare. These efficiency gains have meant that some 90,000 hectares have been released for alternative use, providing farmers with further economic opportunities.

One way of achieving improved crop performance is through the use of advanced seed-priming and coating technology. Since 2007, the British Beet Research Organisation has been working in partnership with one of our businesses, Germains Seed Technology, to conduct UK field trials of new, ‘advanced’ seed products. This research resulted in the development of our seed product, XBEET, which accelerates the rate of seed germination by up to seven days. Quicker establishment of seedlings reduces the risk of damage by poor weather and pests, and the plants also emerge more uniformly, providing further efficiencies for growers when applying plant protection products and during harvesting. The trials demonstrated that the ’advanced’ seed increased the plant population by up to 10% and yields were up to 7% higher than those from untreated seed.

Two years after the trials, growers of 95% of the UK crop had adopted XBEET, and in 2011 the entire seed supply was treated with the product. In only three years, field harvesting losses were halved and root damage was significantly reduced.