1.Title

Debrief Meeting on the Collaborative Research for Sugarcane Improvement between JIRCAS-KKFCRC, Thailand

 2. Date

March 14, 2016

 3. Venue

Khon Kaen Field Crops Research Center, Khon Kaen, Thailand

 4. Organizers

Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS)
Khon Kaen Field Crops Research Center (KKFCRC)

 5. Summary

JIRCAS has been implementing the collaborative research project on sugarcane improvement entitled “Development of new type of sugarcane with better performance under adverse agricultural environments by using wild relatives (EDITS-Cane Project)” with Khon Kaen Field Crops Research Center (KKFCRC), Department of Agriculture (DOA), Thailand since 2011. This project aimed at developing efficient breeding techniques to utilize wild germplasm and sugarcane breeding materials through inter-specific and inter-generic hybridizations.
On 14 March 2016, we held a debrief meeting to report the outputs of this JIRCAS-KKFCRC Collaborative Research on sugarcane improvement. A total of 22 sugarcane researchers participated from Thailand (KKFCRC, Field Crops Research Institute, Suphan Buri Agriculture Research and Development Center [SB-ARDC], Nakhon Sawan Field Crops Research Center, and Khon Kaen University) and Japan (JIRCAS and National Agriculture and Food Research Organization [NARO-Japan]).
The meeting was consisted of two sessions i.e. I) Utilization of Sacchrum spontaneum germplasm in sugarcane breeding, II) Utilization of Erianthusgermplasm for sugarcane improvement.
In the Session I, the experiences of using S. spontaneum germplasm and interspecific hybridization in sugarcane breeding programs were presented by the EDITS-Cane Project, SBARDC and NARO-Japan, respectively. Though new promising interspecific hybrid clones were generated by each program and advantages to use S. spontaneumgermplasm in sugarcane improvement are well recognized by sugarcane breeders, further improvement are required to meet the needs and preference of farmers and current sugar factories.
In the Session II, basic information and techniques developed by the EDITS-Cane Project for promoting the utilization of Erianthus germplasm were reported i.e. 1) morphological and agronomic traits and genetic diversity of the Thai Erianthus germplasm, 2) effective heading control techniques for Erianthus, and 3) basic agronomic and cytogenetic characteristics of inter-generic hybrids between sugarcane and Erianthus(F& BC1). After the presentation, remaining problems and future perspective of utilization of intergeneric hybrids in sugarcane improvement were discussed.
In this meeting, we could share the outputs from the EDITS-Cane Project with Thai and Japanese sugarcane researchers on utilization of wild relatives for sugarcane improvement, specially S. spontaneum and Erianthus. The participants expressed positive expectation to further development of useful breeding materials in the next phase of this project.
サトウキビ改良のための日本とタイの共同研究プロジェクト成果報告会の様子

Debrief Meeting on the Collaborative Research for Sugarcane Improvement between JIRCAS-KKFCRC

サトウキビ改良のための日本とタイの共同研究プロジェクト成果報告会参加者

Attendees of Debrief Meeting