Limitless are the possibilities of giving rise to better yielding sugarcane varieties. At the PHILSURIN's Experiment Stations, breeding remains the most important and expensive activity with sugarcane breeders immersed in an unending quest for a better super variety.

"Our breeding program seeks to develop location-specific varieties that are high in sugar yield, erect, self-trashing and resistant to major diseases," said PHILSURIN Senior Plant Breeder Aurora Barredo.

PHILSURIN took over the operation of Victorias Milling Corporation Sugarcane Breeding Station in Negros Occidental in 1997. It has since infused into the station much-needed funds, facilities, as well as expertise, in the selection of better varieties from clones or crosses that will equal or surpass the performance of commercially available varieties.

Located on 15 hectares of land, the station is equipped with state-of-the art laboratories, greenhouses and nurseries which are manned by the country's top sugarcane breeders, agronomists, pathologists, and entomologists.

Following the seven-year breeding cycle, PHILSURIN's breeding program continues to evaluate VMC crosses (1984-1986) in both preliminary and advanced yield tests and initiates PSR 9PHILSURIN crosses.

"Breeding is a very tricky process, requiring a large germplasm collection and employment of recurrent selection for a particular trait," explained PHILSURIN Director General Leon Arceo.

PHILSURIN employs 2 breeding methods: The biparental cross which involves 2 parents in isolation, which in 4 to 5 tassels of the male and female parent are interspersed and protected from pollen contamination with lanterns hung over a pollination shed.

The polycross technique utilizes a diverse but highly select group of male and female varieties which demonstrate superior qualities. The method involves the periodic shuffling of tassels to ensure random pollination. Seeds are then harvested from both male and female parent of the resulting progeny is known.

"All crosses are maintained in acid solution until seed maturation. The pollinated arrows are then harvested after they show signs of shattering. These arrows are properly labeled and dried. The seeds are stripped from their panicles," Barredo said.

In a span of 30 years, from 1967 to 97, the VMC Breeding Station has released 10 high yielding varieties (HYVs). PHILSURIN released 7 by the end of 2004. "What these figures demonstrate is the very long process involved in breeding. It takes years of hard work to create a new and better variety", Arceo said. PS 4 (VMC 95-152) and PS 5 (VMC 95-09), for example were selected by PHILSURIN from over 130,000 seedlings produced by the VMC Variety Improvement in 1995. "Out of hundreds of thousands of varieties, only 2 or 3 are selected for commercial planting," he added.

The new varieties however, do prove to be owrth the wait, as the massive dispersal of HYVs are among the main factors which have led to the country's self-sufficiency in sugar.

Always a step ahead, PHILSURIN also has gone beyond conventional breeding methods, conducting research in molecular marker technology which seeks to identify genes responsible for sugarcane's resistance to smut and downey mildew, and molecular marker assisted selection that will eventually shorten the breeding cycle.