Published online February 24, 2006

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CROP SCIENCE, VOL. 46, MARCHAPRIL 2006

Sugarcane. Edited by GLYN JAMES. Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK. 2004. Hardcover, 224 pp., $159.99. ISBN 063205476-X. Sugarcane is grown commercially in the tropics and subtropics and is known to be one of the oldest cultivated plants in the world. It is difficult to determine when cane sugar became the principal sweetener, although it first achieved dominance on the subcontinent of India more than 2500 yr ago. It was in that country and China that commercial sugar was first produced from sugarcane. However, it was not until the early eighteenth century that sugar began to be widely used in Western Europe. Sugarcane was unknown in the New World until Columbus introduced it on his second voyage in 1493. This revised edition of Frank Blackburns comprehensive book Sugar-cane (Longman Publ., 1984) deals mainly with the agricultural aspects of growing sugarcane (Saccharum spp.). This book presents a valuable overview of the origin and movement of sugarcane, its geographical distribution, early commercial varieties, and botanical descriptors of the crop (Chapter 1). It describes how a common ancestor of sugarcane originated in southern Asia and spread southeastwards across Asia to Australia some 60 million years ago. Distinct wild forms of sugarcane evolved in isolated locations such as Asia, New Guinea, and other Melanesian islands; however, India is still considered the home of cultivated sugarcane. Breeding and crop improvement strategies are discussed in Chapter 2, and the framework of a multiobjective breeding program covering germplasm acquisitions and usage, breeding and selection methodologies and objectives, parental selection, field plot design, milling characteristics and quality, and the use of molecular-assisted selection and genetic transformation is presented. Breeding is widely acknowledged as the principal method of improving productivity in most sugarcane industries of the world. Advances in technology that have been responsible for continuing gains in productivity and the ones that are likely to be made in the future are described. The more important sugarcane diseases, grouped according to their causal agents as fungal, bacterial, and viral, causing significant damage or regarded as potential hazards, either worldwide or in specific regions, are described in Chapter 3. This comprehensive chapter also outlines the principles of control which are based on preemptive measures to prevent or minimize disease outbreaks. Cultivar resistance to specific diseases and routine field control measures, such as attention to the health of seed cane and effective crop eradication before fields are replanted, are used. Pests of sugarcane can be grouped according to geographic distribution, taxonomic grouping, severity of damage, and feeding habits (Chapter 4). Feeding habits are categorized into four groups: pests that feed on stalks (stalk borers); pests that feed on the subterranean parts of stools (soil pests); pests that feed on the plant sap (sap feeders); and, pests that feed on the leaves of sugarcane (leaf feeders). The biology, damage, distribution, and control of the major pests in each of these groups are examined. Sugarcane management practices are influenced by climate, soil type, composition and structure, land preparation, irrigation and drainage requirements, variety and ratoon management, pest management, availability of skilled labor, and harvesting methods (Chapter 5). Many of these factors interact and are often interdependent; as a consequence, management

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practices in sugar-producing countries have evolved to satisfy local conditions. Chapter 5 provides an exhaustive description of the general principles that are followed at most locations, but it also highlights specific practices in some regions, such as Guyana, Mozambique, and the USA (Florida and Louisiana). A detailed table of herbicide recommendations in South Africa is presented. Sugarcane agronomy involves the integration of soil science and crop production. An outline of soil and production management problems that can be expected from the initiation of a plantation to the end of a multiple-year crop cycle is presented in Chapter 6. Topics in this chapter include: problems with soil management, site selection, clearing, planning and layout, field design, land preparation, nurseries, commercial planting, crop management, crop control, harvest, field factors and cane quality, ratooning, monoculture, specialty crops, intercropping, and economics. Good harvest management is crucial to the profitability of both the cane grower and the miller (Chapter 7). Growers invest significant time and money to produce their crop, but poor harvesting and transport operations can result in dramatic losses of recoverable sugar as a result of physical losses of cane in the field and deterioration of cane quality before milling. Cane payment systems are one of the most important facets of any cane industry, since they determine how revenues are distributed between growers and millers. Chapter 8 provides a detailed description of cane payment systems found in cane industries around the world. This analysis includes a discussion of how these systems allocate revenue between grower and miller, and how the incentives embodied in the systems influence the technical performance of an industry as well as the incentives to expand production. Project planning concerns with the optimum use of resources and, in a sugar project, the relevant resources include land, water, people, and money, is described in Chapter 9. This chapter concludes this excellent book by suggesting that a sugarcane project cannot raise the necessary funding unless the economic objectives are achieved, hence project planning will always involve an assessment of the markets for the proposed products and a comprehensive financial and/or economic analysis. The book is a collection of chapters written by recognized authorities in the worlds sugarcane agroindustry. The book is intended for students, agriculturalists, and others who have an association with sugarcane. It is a comprehensive collection of useful information on all aspects of sugarcane agriculture from the origin of the species to the planning of new sugarcane projects. There are a number of excellent publications covering the factory side, so the book does not cover milling and processing of sugarcane, but instead deals mainly with the agricultural aspects. The book is not needlessly technical; however, additional references are listed at the end of most of the chapters for further reading. Benjamin L. Legendre LSU AgCenter Research and Extension St. Gabriel Research Station 5755 LSU Ag Road St. Gabriel, LA 70776 (blegendre@agctr.lsu.edu) doi:10.2135/cropsci2006.0005br