Nine experts from five countries attended the annual meeting of the Consortium to share research results and discuss new projects.
Researchers from Australia, France, India, the United States (Hawaii, Florida and Illinois) and Colombia held the annual meeting of the International Sugarcane Biotechnology Consortium, between May 31 and June 3.
As part of the agenda, the international delegation visited Cenicaña and had the opportunity to learn about the advances of the Center in different areas and especially in biotechnology, in its two lines of research: identification of genes of agronomic interest and genetic transformation.
The program also included visits to experimental fields with manual harvesting, the La Palestina sugar mill, the Sugar Cane Museum and two days of meeting in Cali to discuss new research projects and future developments in biotechnology applied to the crop.
“Cenicaña is part of the Consortium in which the experts from the institutes of the main sugar industries in the world and the cane biotechnology research groups that carry out research on the subject participate jointly. The results of their investigations have supported us in the characterization of our varieties to have better crosses, in the molecular diagnosis of diseases and they have been fundamental to keep up-to-date in the biotechnology of sugarcane ”, said Dr. Álvaro Amaya , general director of the Research Center.
For her part, Angelique D´Hont, from Cirad (France), highlighted the “efforts being made in Cenicaña regarding the use of associative mapping (identification of genes associated with characteristics of agronomic importance), which will be very important for the development of new and better varieties ”.
Members of the International Sugarcane Biotechnology Consortium with senior management and research staff from Cenicaña.
Visit of the members of the International Biotechnology Consortium to the Cenicaña biotechnology laboratory. From left to right: Jim Shane (Florida Sugar Growers, USA), Rajeev Danni (VSI, India), Jershon López (Cenicaña, Colombia), Erik Mirkov (Texas A&M University, USA); Shivajirao Deshmukh (Vasantdada Sugar Institute, India); Harjeet Khanna (Sugar Research Australia); Paul and Melinda Moore (Hawaii); Angelique D'Hont (Cirad, France) and Ray Ming (University of Illinois, USA). 
