SRA22A IS A GREAT OPTION FOR DISEASE RESISTANCE IN THE CENTRAL REGION

Kelsey Creek grower, Doug Lee (left) talks about the cane varieties he grows in his farm's trial block with Sugar Services Proserpine's George Cole and Frank Millar and SRA's Central Variety Development Manager, George Piperidis.

SRA22A IS A GREAT OPTION

FOR DISEASE RESISTANCE IN THE CENTRAL REGION

Growers in the Central district should check out sugarcane

variety SRA22A which has some great characteristics that

make it worth growing, according to growers in Proserpine.

It has an interesting pedigree.

It originated from a cross made in 2003 between a southern elite clone and a clone imported from Canal Point in the United States.

SRA imports clones not only from the US but many other countries. CP72-2086 became one of the parents of SRA22A .

Variety Development Manager Central Dr George Piperidis picks up the story:

“The other parent is a Southern elite clone, QS91-7179,” George said.

“The progeny from this cross was first planted as seedlings in 2004 at the Bundaberg research station.

“QS04-772 (the seedling name for SRA22A) was selected through the early stages of the program in the southern region and made it to the final stages.

“It then went through the Final Assessment Trial (FAT) but ultimately it wasn’t chosen for release as a commercial variety. “However, within SRA all the regional breeding programs have an inter-station exchange. We exchange the best of the best with each other every year.

“SRA Mackay received SRA22A when it was still named QS04-772 in 2011. We planted it in our FAT trials in 2013 and again in 2016.

We presented the data to the Regional Variety Committee and they made the decision to commercially release it in 2019.

“Growers in Mackay, Plane Creek and Proserpine have been able to access it since 2020.”

SRA22A ticks the boxes when it comes to disease resistance:

“We know it is resistant to both smut and Pachymetra root rot.

Developing a variety that is resistant to a combination of those two diseases has been very difficult and elusive so this is a breakthrough,” George said. “All the recently released varieties in the Central region are resistant to one but intermediate to the other disease. (However, Q253A released in 2017 is also resistant to both smut and Pachymetra.)

“SRA22A is also resistant to Fiji disease, brown and orange rust, and mosaic disease, too, with intermediate resistance to leaf scald,” he said.