Detection of flowering risk in the sugarcane crop.

Sugarcane cultivation presents a real anomaly compared to the agronomic management of other crops, as flowers are often the precursor to fruit, and generating flowering risk alerts could seem counterproductive. However, it is noteworthy that the cultivation of sugar cane aims to extract precisely the main element that the plant would use to generate flowers: sugar. Therefore, flowering risk alerts play a crucial agronomic role in crop management.

Detection of the risk of blooming

In sugarcane, it is widely explored in the scientific literature, revealing a large number of complex parameters and relationships that need to be analyzed and interpreted. Parameters include plant genetics, with significant improvements over the decades inhibiting flowering. The age of the crop is another crucial factor, considering that older plants are at higher risk, as the plant regenerates each season by cutting and regrowth. Crop management, especially in irrigation and fertilization, which scientific publications highlight as fundamentally influential, adds to a long list of considerations.

But from this long list, the climatic factor repeatedly appears as one of the fundamental causes to be considered; in fact, the vast majority of the literature that can be consulted on flowering risk in sugarcane delves into climatology as a key factor.

HEMAV has invested time and resources in developing an effective and scientifically supported tool to detect flowering risk, identifying relevant publications that can be integrated into the company’s specific tools applied to sugarcane cultivation. Climatological analyses of crop surfaces, especially during specific periods that accentuate plant sensitivities, form the basis of this tool. HEMAV offers its customers a new tool capable of issuing scientifically based bloom risk alerts, adapted to the specific conditions of each customer and with a modern and intuitive interface.

In summary,

Sugarcane crop management presents unique challenges. Unlike other crops where flowers precede fruit, in sugarcane, the detection of flowering risks is essential. HEMAV has developed a scientifically backed tool to alert about bloom risks, allowing farmers to take important measures, such as:

1. Harvest early varieties prone to flowering.

2. Use flowering inhibitors or ripeners to anticipate the harvest period.