The panelero sector achieves higher yields with variety CC 93-7711

Corpoica and Cenicaña formally delivered a variety that is distinguished by increasing panela yields. A contribution of the sugarcane agribusiness to the panela sector of Colombia.

Within the framework of a technical cooperation agreement between Corpoica and Cenicaña, on November 29 in Güepsa, Santander, the CC 93-7711 variety was delivered to the panelero sector of Boyacá and Santander, which is characterized by offering higher yields to this sector productive.

This variety was obtained by Cenicaña and transferred to Corpoica for its evaluation in the production of panela. This evaluation process was carried out since 2008 for the production of panela in the region known as La Hoya del Río Suárez (between Boyacá and Santander).

During the evaluation, the variety CC 93-7711 outperformed the local controls RD 75-11 and CC 84-75 due to its agronomic and process characteristics. According to information from Corpoica, this variety is resistant to diseases such as rust, charcoal and yellow leaf virus; It has a vegetative cycle of 18 months, two less than the RD 75-11 variety, which is the most widely distributed in the region.

The yields of CC 93-7711 in the field were 144 TCH and in a commercial grinding test 14.6 tons of panela per hectare (TPH), exceeding by 18 TCH and 2.5 TPH the yields of RD 75-11, used as control variety.

In addition to these results, the variety becomes important for the panela sector of the Hoya del Río Suárez because this region is the one with the highest productivity of panela, since it contributes 32% of the production in only 16% of the cultivated area on a national scale . Likewise, it has one of the highest yields per unit of area in the country with about 12 TPH compared to the Colombian average of 6.1 TPH.

Despite these good yields, the cycles of the varieties currently cultivated are of long vegetative periods to achieve commercial maturity, a condition that reduces competitiveness.