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North Queensland farmers in drier areas could soon be growing tropical sugar beet.
Syngenta has been developing tropical sugar beet and last month the first commercial crops was planted in India. Director of Syngenta Seeds Peter Gerner says the real advatage of beet over cane is it uses less water and it could be grown in the off season.
Until now most conventional sugar beet has been grown in cool temperate climates in latitudes in northern Europe and northern USA but Mr Gerner says trials in the Childers area and in the Burdekin valley have shown the crop to be adaptable to Queensland conditions. Mr Gerner says as long as modifications are made to the feed-in sections of refineries, sugar beet can be processed at existing cane mills.