CTC celebrates 50 years of sugarcane research

Innovation and transformation are two characteristics that mark the history of the Canavieira Technology Center. The 100% national company, focused on research, development and commercialization of sugarcane varieties, celebrates 2019 years since its founding in 50.

To mark this moment, the CTC launches the book “Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira – 50 anos”, contextualizing the emergence of the company, highlighting the transformations it has undergone over the years, the evolution of research and how it positions itself for the challenges that are to come, while revealing the deep connections between the company's growth and the development of the sugar-energy sector in Brazil.

For Gustavo Leite, president of the CTC, innovation is a central issue for the competitiveness of any country. “In the year that CTC celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, we feel very proud to have contributed, through various innovations, to making the Brazilian sugar-energy sector the most competitive in the world. From the first crossbreeding of varieties to cutting-edge genetic engineering, there were five decades of challenges, achievements and a lot of learning”, highlights the executive.

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Headquartered in Piracicaba, in the interior of the state of São Paulo, CTC has had a long history to become the main reference in sugarcane technology in Brazil and the world. The CTC was born 50 years ago as an initiative by Copersucar, supported by the conviction that technological innovation is vital for the competitiveness and longevity of the sugar and ethanol industry.

The first transition occurred in 2004, when the CTC became a non-profit association with the participation of the main sugar-energy groups in the country. With the evolution of research and the changes that have occurred in the sector over the years, in 2011 CTC was transformed into an S/A and the implementation of the new business strategy began, with the commercialization of its varieties through royalties and the modernization of the genetic improvement program, with the installation of regional hubs and shortening the variety development cycle.

In relation to the structural organization, 2014 marked another important step for the company: the entry of BNDESPar as a shareholder. As a result, in 2017, the company was listed on the Stock Exchange and plans to go public, which should attract the necessary investments for research to be expanded, bringing even more prominence and productivity to CTC, a company that for 50 years celebrates the opportunities of the future.

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By defining itself as a technology company, CTC focuses its efforts on research and development in areas that bring significant productivity gains to sugarcane. 

In the area of ​​biotechnology, this will happen on three fronts, two of them in the field of genomics: transgenics will allow the development and launch of new varieties that incorporate characteristics of other species and genomic editing will use new technologies to activate or deactivate characteristics already present in the code genetics of the sugarcane itself, reinforcing or attenuating traits that affect the plant's performance in terms of resistance, maturation, sucrose content and others, as necessary. The third front is artificial seed, which will free the farmer from the restrictions imposed by the intrinsic characteristics of sugar cane and increase the efficiency of the crop.

But advances will also go beyond biotechnology. By associating knowledge – both already acquired and to be developed – in this area with new fronts of studies in the field of information technology, the CTC will use the power of data to leverage the gains of biotechnology, bringing benefits to the sugar and alcohol sector that go far beyond those contained in the plants themselves – for example, allowing the cultivation to be precisely adjusted to the characteristics of each property. Or even employing algorithms to support the decisions usually made at different stages of production.

The union of all these efforts will bring revolutionary results to the sector: sugarcane varieties with meticulously established characteristics, planted in the form of seeds by agile and efficient machines according to a cultivation plan adjusted to the different parts of each property. The productivity gains and cost savings will be enormous, with a direct impact on the farmer's profitability. That is why, approaching its fifty years, the CTC, much more than the past, celebrates the future.