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Our Philosophy

Advancing Sugarcane Breeding for Sustainable Agriculture

We believe that the best sugarcane varieties are obtained by performing the selection process in the conditions that they will be grown in. We believe in making a wide variety of crosses from the best available germplasm to create a large number of crosses to be tested in a family testing stage. The elite crosses are then planted in larger numbers and individual seedlings selected from from those elite families. This gives a mix of possible selections based derived from general and specific recombining abilities.

Aerial view of the Station

Poly crosses

At the WICSCBS we believe in using what we call targeted poly crosses to enhance the amount of variation available to the selector. Our targeted poly crosses contain varieties with specific characteristics appropriate for the industrys that the cross is designated for.

Examples would include crosses commercial cane varieties to very high sugar germplasm, or confirmed disease resistant material to either commercial cane or high sugar germplasm. In these examples all of the males in the cross would be of one type and all of the females of the other, leading to very tailored polycross for our clients.

Biparental crosses

We do biparental crosses with proven parental material, or where a specific trait such as diseases resistance is a very important trait for our clients.

We will also do biparental crosses if specifically requested.