Negative effects of lodging on irrigated sugarcane productivity—An experimental and crop modelling assessment

Abstract

Lodging lowers the productivity of sugarcane through a reduction in radiation use efficiency and stalk damage. However, there are few reports of experiments specifically designed to quantify effects of lodging in sugarcane. Efforts to model onset and progression of lodging, and the impact on crop productivity, have not been attempted. The objectives of this paper were to quantify effects of lodging on sugarcane and to develop modeling capability in terms of predicting lodging onset, progression and impact. Field experiments with irrigated ratoon crops were conducted at Pongola, South Africa. In one treatment the cane in each plot was allowed to grow through bamboo frames that prevented lodging. In the other treatment, the cane was not supported and could lodge at any stage. The degree of lodging was captured weekly by a rating that ranged from 1 to 9, where 1 = fully erect cane and 9 = completely lodged cane. At harvest estimated recoverable crystal percent (ERC %) of stalks and yield (cane and ERC) was measured for each plot. Lodging resulted in decreased ERC yields of up to 20.6%. An algorithm for simulating lodging when aboveground biomass (including rainfall and irrigation water retained on it) exceeds a variety-specific threshold, and which also considers wind speed and soil water content, was evaluated for predicting the extent and impact of lodging in the Pongola experiments, as well as for four deficit irrigation treatments of a field experiment conducted in Komatipoort, South Africa. The study showed that the onset of lodging was simulated reasonably well for various soil/crop/atmospheric conditions, while the extent of lodging at harvest was simulated very accurately for all crops.Simulated lodging was primarily driven by crop size and lodging events were triggered by rainfall that added weight to the aerial mass of the crop, and reduced the anchoring ability of the soil through saturation of the top soil. More accurate simulation of lodging, and its impacts on yield, will improve the accuracy of yield predictions by crop models, increasing 2 their value in applications such as crop forecasting, climate change studies and exploring crop improvement and management options.

New APSIM-Sugar features and parameters required to account for high sugarcane yields in tropical environments

“…Due to lodging, the decline in RUE ranged from 30% to 50% in studies using APSIM-Sugar in Australia (Biggs et al, 2013;Inman-Bamber et al, 2006, 2004Meier and Thorburn, 2016;Thorburn et al, 2011) and Brazil (Oliveira et al, 2016), where our maximum decline due to RGP in general was about 50%, consistent with the results reported above. Dias, et al Field Crops Research 235 (2019) 38-53 The statistical indices for yields simulated with APSIM-Sugar for Gualadupe, using the RGP effect, cannot be compared directly to other studies in literature where lodging rules were applied in APSIM-Sugar (Biggs et al, 2013;Inman-Bamber et al, 2004;Meier and Thorburn, 2016;Oliveira et al, 2016;Thorburn et al, 2011) and in CANEGRO/ CANESIM (Singels et al, 2008;Van Heerden et al, 2015) due to many reasons. First, the statistical indices for yields were not available (Biggs et al, 2013;Inman-Bamber et al, 2004;Van Heerden et al, 2015) or were not available for data where lodging played a role (Singels et al, 2008).…”

“…Dias, et al Field Crops Research 235 (2019) 38-53 The statistical indices for yields simulated with APSIM-Sugar for Gualadupe, using the RGP effect, cannot be compared directly to other studies in literature where lodging rules were applied in APSIM-Sugar (Biggs et al, 2013;Inman-Bamber et al, 2004;Meier and Thorburn, 2016;Oliveira et al, 2016;Thorburn et al, 2011) and in CANEGRO/ CANESIM (Singels et al, 2008;Van Heerden et al, 2015) due to many reasons. First, the statistical indices for yields were not available (Biggs et al, 2013;Inman-Bamber et al, 2004;Van Heerden et al, 2015) or were not available for data where lodging played a role (Singels et al, 2008). Second, other site-specific changes in the models for reducing RUE were applied together with lodging, for instance waterlogging (Meier and Thorburn, 2016), making it difficult for comparisons.…”

Lodging markedly reduced the biomass of sweet sorghum via decreasing photosynthesis in saline-alkali field

“…Lodging had a consistently negative effect on crop growth [17], sugar accumulation [11] and seed yield [18]. In the present paper, for the first time, the effect of lodging on the plant growth, sugar accumulation and photosynthetic parameter of sweet sorghum when cultivated in the saline-alkali soil was investigated.…”

“…When lodging occurs, the absorptive capacity of plants would be destroyed, water and minerals transportation was blocked, as while as the capacity of photosynthetic rate and the dry mass were reduced, thus leading to a decline in the yield and quality of plants [10]. For example, lodging reduced the biomass production and cane quality in sugarcane, so lowered the productivity of sugarcane [11]. In rice, lodging at one day before the grain-filling stage reduced the yield, decreased the seed-setting percentage, reduced the 1000-grain weight, subsequently lower the eating quality [12].…”

Design and analysis of sugarcane breeding experiments: a case study

“…During the production year, the plant can be around 2 meters high. It is not surprising, that under climatic effects (mainly strong winds and/or dry weather), the sugarcane can lose its erectness (Singh et al, 2002;Van Heerden et al, 2015).…”