Ceres, an energy crop company, and Syngenta announced they have extended a joint market development agreement in Brazil. The two companies will go forward with efforts to promote the use of sweet sorghum and high biomass sorghum at Brazilian ethanol mills.
Ceres and Syngenta will continue collaborating on field evaluations with mills under the renewed agreement, with Syngenta evaluating its portfolio of crop protection products alongside Ceres hybrids and Ceres providing both seed and research support. Both companies will coordinate outreach to ethanol mills and develop industry training programs.
Syngenta has implied that it intends to move forward with evaluations that are aimed at registering additional crop protection products for sorghum. The company sees sweet sorghum as a potential complement to sugarcane in ethanol production and is working with Ceres to identify the best protocols for fully protecting and amplifying the inherent potential of the crop.
“We are pleased to be working with such a well-established leader to provide our mutual customers with more choices of crop protection products for sorghum,” said Andre Franco, general manager of Ceres Sementes do Brasil Ltda, Ceres’ local subsidiary. “Working together with Syngenta we have made important progress in fine-tuning crop management practices that can enhance yields through greater protection against pests, diseases and weeds.”
A hardy crop, sweet sorghum can extend the ethanol production season in Brazil by up to 60 days. Sweet sorghum can be grown on fallow sugarcane land and processed with the same equipment. Sweet sorghum requires less water and other inputs than sugarcane, since it grows in as few as 90 to 120 days. This past season, Ceres’ sweet sorghum products were planted on more than 3,000 hectares with more than 30 mills. High biomass sorghum is grown chiefly for its biomass productivity rather than sugar content and is an energy crop that can be used as feedstock for biopower, like heat and electricity.
For more information, visit www.ceres.net
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