Sugarcane is a crop valued mainly for the high sucrose content in its cane stalks. Since sucrose is the most essential part of commercial cane sugar (CCS), it automatically becomes the top priority for farmers, and consequently, for breeders and agronomists as well. In the mature internodes, sucrose content can reach around 25% of the fresh weight of the culm. However, the rapid inversion and d...

The South African Sugar Association Experiment Station, Agricultural Engineering Department conducted a series of semi-mechanised versus fully mechanised harvesting trials on a large commercial estate in Swaziland over the 1998/1999, 2000/2001 and 2001/2002 seasons. During the trials machinery performance was measured, differences in the quality of cane delivered to the factory were determined,...

Lignocellosic ethanol production is now at a stage where commercial or semi-commercial plants are coming online and, provided cost effective production can be achieved, lignocellulosic ethanol will become an important part of the world bio economy. However, challenges are still to be overcome throughout the process and particularly for the fermentation of the complex sugar mixtures resulting fr...

An epidemiological study was undertaken in a sugar cane plantation of the Sugar Company of Kwilu Ngongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to evaluate the incidence of the snakebites, to report the epidemiological and clinical indicators and the therapeutic practices. The plantations extend by 41 km covering about 10,000 hectares in arboreal savannahs. The method associated i) a retrospe...