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Cane crush begins despite mystery disease
ABC Rural
By Marty McCarthy
Updated 6 hours 20 minutes ago
...
Laurence di Bella - Ingham researcher
Mr di Bella has been monitoring blocks since November and watched healthy crops south of Ingham transform in a matter of weeks without explanation.
He?s finding new symptoms every day, characteristics never seen in sugar cane before.
"The stalks are no longer rigid so we can actually bend them and almost make a perfect circle with them," Mr di Bella says.
...
Farmers only raised the alarm at the start of the year when much of their cane simply stopped growing, even after heavy rainfall.
But as the symptoms spread further south to Mackay and deeper into the cane stalks, it starter to become more obvious.
The problem is that when the cane yellows the leaves can't photosynthesise.
This stops the cane from growing and producing sucrose, which is needed to make sugar.
...
However, recently researchers started digging in into the dirt and that's when they found the problem got much worse.
"We initially didn't realise the impact on roots until we actually started digging them," Mr di Bella said.
...
It's a concern for an industry worth $2 billion a year to Queensland's economy and an emerging headache for a farming sector already struggling with live export bans and drought.
...
Queensland's cane industry has now turned to the US Department of Agriculture for help, as well as research groups in Brazil, South Africa and Asia.
...
Full text:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-04/yellow-cane-disease/4731874
ABC Rural
By Marty McCarthy
Updated 6 hours 20 minutes ago
...
Laurence di Bella - Ingham researcher
Mr di Bella has been monitoring blocks since November and watched healthy crops south of Ingham transform in a matter of weeks without explanation.
He?s finding new symptoms every day, characteristics never seen in sugar cane before.
"The stalks are no longer rigid so we can actually bend them and almost make a perfect circle with them," Mr di Bella says.
...
Farmers only raised the alarm at the start of the year when much of their cane simply stopped growing, even after heavy rainfall.
But as the symptoms spread further south to Mackay and deeper into the cane stalks, it starter to become more obvious.
The problem is that when the cane yellows the leaves can't photosynthesise.
This stops the cane from growing and producing sucrose, which is needed to make sugar.
...
However, recently researchers started digging in into the dirt and that's when they found the problem got much worse.
"We initially didn't realise the impact on roots until we actually started digging them," Mr di Bella said.
...
It's a concern for an industry worth $2 billion a year to Queensland's economy and an emerging headache for a farming sector already struggling with live export bans and drought.
...
Queensland's cane industry has now turned to the US Department of Agriculture for help, as well as research groups in Brazil, South Africa and Asia.
...
Full text:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-04/yellow-cane-disease/4731874