The growth in the sugarcane sector leads to intense search for new agricultural land suitable for expansion. In the State of São Paulo, the Pontal do Paranapanema region is considered one of the last regions suitable for sugarcane expansion in large scale. However, the expansion of this crop may change the productive structures and the objectives of family agriculture in agrarian reform settlem...

In many crop producing areas of the world there are reports of yield decline and loss of productive potential in soils. Little is known about the long term effects of sugarcane monocropping on changes in physical, chemical and biological properties of soils. The aim of this study was to quantify the physical and chemical condition of soils under sugarcane production in northern Kwazulu-Natal, a...

This work reports endoglucanase and beta-glucosidase production by the thermophilic fungus Myceliophthora heterothallica in solid-state (SSC) and submerged (SmC) cultivation. Wheat bran and sugarcane bagasse were used for SSC and cardboard for SmC. Highest endoglucanase production in SSC occurred after 192 hours: 1,170.6 ± 0.8 U/g, and in SmC after 168 hours: 2,642 ± 561 U/g. The endoglucanases...

The Saccharum sensu stricto (s.s) genus consists of three recognised species: S. spontaneum, S. officinarum and S. robustum, and three subspecies: S. sinense, S. barberi and S. edule. Currently, limited knowledge is available about the precise descent of these species from one another. Modern sugarcane arose through the ‘Nobilization’ process, and it is believed that S. officinarum and S. spont...

The ability to monitor sugarcane expansion in Brazil, the world’s largest producer and exporter of sugar and second largest producer of ethanol, is important due to its agricultural, economic, strategic and environmental relevance. With the advent of flex fuel cars in 2003 the sugarcane area almost doubled over the last decade in the South-Central region of Brazil. Using remote sensing images, ...

This study’s overarching aim is to establish the areal extent and characteristics of the rapid sugarcane expansion and land use change in São Paulo state (Brazil) as a result of an increase in the demand for ethanol, using Landsat type remotely sensed data. In 2003 flex fuel automobiles started to enter the Brazilian consumer market causing a dramatic expansion of sugarcane areas from 2.57 mill...