SASTA · Gavin Smith (Industry Support Man-ager, SMRI) Vice-President: Kerry Redshaw ... Method development for Near Infrared Spectroscopy has been a research fo-

SA Sugar Technologists’ Association Page 1

Newsletter of the SA Sugar Technologists’ Association DECEMBER 2011

SASTA contact details: [email protected] Telephone: 031 508 7543 Fax: 031 508 7420 Website: www.sasta.co.za

SASTANEWS

In this issue

• Congress 2012 – announcement and call for papers

• SASTA Congress 2011 - report

• Prize winners from Congress 2011

• Innovation awards – call for nominations

• New SASTA members

• SASTA Council 2011-2012

• Prices for 2012

• SASTA International Visitors Grant – open all year round!

• SASTA Symposium on Sustain-able Soil use - report

• SASTA Roadshow 2012

The 84th SASTA Con-gress was held from 17 – 19 August 2011 at the ICC, Durban. The congress is a major highlight in the SASTA

calendar and continues to be a pre-mier event for local sugarcane tech-nologists. In addition, Congress also enjoys consistent support from other African sugarcane-growing countries, and beyond. This year saw a record delegate attendance of 555, around 30 more delegates than the 2010 Congress. The continued success of the SASTA Congress reflects the high quality research and technical papers presented as well as the valuable net-working opportunities that are on offer.

The Opening session featured a keynote presentation plus two inter-

Report on SASTA Congress 2011

national invited guest speakers. The keynote speaker was Professor Volker Wedekind, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal. Prof Wedekind’s address on skills development, education and training provided delegates with much food for thought. Following the key-note address was a presentation by Dr Mart Farina, on behalf of Dr Malcolm Sumner. Dr Sumner was the recipient of the SASTA International Visitors Grant but was unfortunately unable to travel to South Africa due to ill health. Dr Sumner is an eminent soil scientist who was to spend several weeks visit-ing the South African Sugar Industry working with various soil scientists. His visit will be rescheduled once his health has improved. We were also very fortunate to have a presentation by Dr Graham Kingston, a sugarcane

Keynote Speaker Professor Volker Wedekind

The Steel Drum Band entertaining delegates at the Meet and Greet function with SASRI researcher Dr Peta Campbell enjoying the music.

agronomist who has recently retired from BSES Australia. Dr Kingston spoke on the difficult 2010 harvest in Australia due to excessive rainfall and flooding.

This year’s scientific programme con-tained over 60 presentations and was


a diverse mixture of topical subjects. The Factory portion of the Congress programme commenced with a work-shop on Biorefining (the conversion of biomass into multiple products). By all accounts this workshop was a tremendous success and a follow-up workshop is planned for 2012. The rest of the factory programme was split into five themed sessions. Papers were presented on cane supply, refin-ing processes and the role of chemical analysis in routine factory operation and troubleshooting. There was also a focus on some of the mechanical equipment used in the front end of the raw mill. A general session included papers on crystalliser design, waste-water treatment in ethanol plants and on training at foreman level in sugar operations.

The Agriculture papers were organ-ised into ten themed sessions. There were several sessions devoted to Crop Protection and included a variety of presentations on viral diseases of sugarcane, herbicide selection and various insect pests. Research on Crop Nutrition and important envi-ronmental issues such as river water quality were presented and there were also papers focused on Agricul-tural Development in the small-scale grower sector. The Agronomy session included papers on topics such as lodging, modelling source/sink rela-tionships and cultivar responses to trashing. The latest developments in sugarcane breeding and analysis of sugarcane varieties were also show-cased. A joint session for both Agricul-ture and Factory delegates focussed on Bioresources Engineering where research on cane supply, stockpiling and vehicle loading efficiency was presented.

As in previous years the Trade Exhi-bition was a focal point at Congress. This year there was an excellent response to exhibition options with a record 49 stands being sold well in ad-vance of Congress. This suggests that exhibitors find the Congress network-ing opportunities valuable and SASTA appreciates their support. As always, exhibitor stands were of high quality and judges had tough decisions to make when awarding prizes for the best stands. The overall winner was BMG with Highly Commended awards

going to TopCon Precision Agriculture, Bosch Projects, TVM and Mecosa.

Preparations for Congress 2012 are already underway with several excit-ing sessions and presentations being

planned. So diarise 15 - 17 August 2012 now!

Article written by Deborah Sweby

The Best Exhibition Stand


SASTA Council 2011-2012

President: Gavin Smith

(Industry Support Man-ager, SMRI)

Vice-President: Kerry Redshaw

(Operations Manager, SASRI)

Carel Bezuidenhout (SASRI Research Fellow and Associate Professor,

UKZN)

Stuart Ferrer (Research Economist, SA

Canegrowers)

Warren Lawlor (Tsb International)

Steve Peacock (Functional Head –

Process, TEG, THS)

Keith McFarlane (Technical Team Manager,

SASRI)

Adri Mehl (Finance and Admin

Manager, SASRI)

Paul Schorn (Operations Group Leader, TEG, THS)

Deborah Sweby (Research Officer,

Molecular Biologist, SASRI)

Sanet Nel is a Researcher in the Chem-istry Division at the SMRI and is respon-sible for the research and development of new tech-nologies and/or products or processes aimed at contributing to the sustainability of the Sugar Industry. As a self-proclaimed biotechnology aficionado who en-courages and enjoys interdisciplin-ary interaction, Sanet is relishing the prospect of joining the platform which SASTA creates to serve and improve our Industry. Apart from her scientific brilliance, Sanet’s unconventional and sometimes eccentric attitude will un-doubtedly be an asset for the SASTA Congress organising committee and she looks forward to contributing in zhooshing-up the Congress.

Sumita Ramgareeb is the Re-source Manager for the Breeding and Field Resource Unit at SASRI.

This Resource Unit is respon-sible for the management of the SAS-RI Research Stations, Se-lec t i on and C r o s s i n g , T e c h n i c a l Team and the Instrumentation and Mechanical workshop. Sumita is looking forward to offering her organising skills to the SASTA Congress and her cre-ative ones to SASTA publicity. When Sumita is not marshalling the BFRU team she is whipping another team in shape; she is an ardent Manchester United supporter and a vociferous arm chair coach.

Richard Simpson is the Head of De-partment (Analytical ) at the Sugar Mill-ing Research Institute. He is a member of the Sugar Quality Committee, Fac-tory Control Advisory Committee, the National Chairperson for ICUMSA (International Commission for Uni-form Methods of Sugar Analysis) and

serves on the SMRI Adviso-ry Research Commi t tee . The Analyti-cal Division provides i ts members with analytical re-s u l t s f r o m front to back end products. The Division is also responsible for the analysis of mixed juice and molasses by the Official Methods used for cane payment. Method development for Near Infrared Spectroscopy has been a research fo-cus over the last few years and is in the process of implementation in the industry. Richard is the “Custodian” of the SASTA laboratory manual. Rich-ard was a keen footballer and attained Zimbabwe and Springbok colours and spent time in the English Leagues as a youngster looking for a contract. Sadly Liverpool did not want him but he is still a supporter. You`ll Never Walk Alone.

New Council members for 2011-2012


Kynoch prize winner:

V Harraca, J Du Pissanie, RS Rutherford and DE Conlong – Un-derstanding the chemical ecology of stimulo-deterrent diversion as a basis for sugarcane pest control: Eldana saccharina vs Melinis minitiflora

This presentation by Vincent Harraca was outstanding in that it conveyed complex pest chemical ecology con-cepts using computer animations.

Kynoch highly commended (a tie)

PDR van Heerden – Effects of lodg-ing and anti-lodging chemicals on the productivity of variety N25: Prelimi-nary findings

This paper presented encouraging preliminary findings on prevention of lodging using anti-lodging chemical and effect on ERC yields and

P Mudavanhu, DE Conlong and P Addison – Performance of sterilised Eldana saccharina Walker (Lepidop-tera: Pyralidea) in mating trials

The study on the mating behaviour of eldana exposed to irradiation demon-strated the potential of Sterile Insect Technique in an integrated pest man-agement programme. The work forms part of Pride Mudavanhu’s PhD study at Stellenbosch University

Cecil-Renaud Agriculture Prize

J Dlamini – Facilitating institutional change: A precursor for development success?

Jabu Dlamini succinctly outlined some of the institutional change processes being implemented amongst small-scale growers in Mpumalanga. Of particular interest was the way in which Participatory Rural Appraisal Methodologies are being implemented to augment the change process.

Student prize - Agriculture

Pride Mudavanhu (co-authored by DE Conlong and P Addison) – Perfor-mance of sterilised Eldana saccharina Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidea) in mating trials

The study on the mating behaviour of eldana exposed to irradiation demon-strated the potential of Sterile Insect Technique in an integrated pest man-agement programme. The work forms part of P Mudavanhu’s PhD study at Stellenbosch University

Jubilee Agriculture Award

Vincent Harraca

V Harraca, J Du Pissanie, RS Ruther-ford and DE Conlong – Understanding the chemical ecology of stimulo-deter-rent diversion as a basis for sugarcane pest control: Eldana saccharina vs Melinis minitiflora

This presentation was outstanding in that it conveyed complex pest chemi-cal ecology concepts using computer animations. Vincent’s prize is a trip to participate in the ISSCT Congress in Brazil in 2013.

Poster prize (Agriculture)

CN Bezuidenhout – A bibliometrical analysis of regular SASTA authors between 2000 and 2010

An innovative social network analysis was presented of author submissions to SASTA congress over the last decade. The presenter encouraged interdisciplinary co-authorship be-tween milling and agriculture sections, especially in the fields of breeding and engineering.

Agriculture success story award

No eligible candidates.

Talbot-Crosbie prize

Y Naidoo and R Simpson - Can near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) be used to predict lactic acid, acetic acid and ethanol in sugarcane mixed juice?

Very useful work-Objective and results consistent - good data and well pre-sented (slides with sound)- Good pre-sentation- talking rather than reading. Solid analytical chemistry was well developed with appropriate checks and sound reasoning. Although this grows on similar work it still warrants recognition as a valuable step forward. The paper has significant benefit to the industry.

Jubilee Factory Award

Lola Naidoo

Can near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) be used to predict lactic acid, acetic acid and ethanol in sugarcane mixed juice? (Y Naidoo and R Simp-son)

This paper is of excellent quality which indicates that the author(s) are more than capable of producing a further paper for presentation at the forthcom-ing ISSCT Congress in Brazil in 2013.

Cecil Renaud - Factory prize

No award made.

The Judging Panel recommends that this prize is not awarded this year as the number of eligible papers to choose from was low and the quality of these papers was not exceptional.

Robin Renton Memorial Award/PGBI prize

Thembi Sibiya

Thembi, a Process Engineer em-ployed by Tsb, has been working on continuous improvement at the Male-lane Refinery. She presented a paper (Laboratory and pilot plant test work to evaluate powdered activated carbon as an ad hoc refinery decolourising additive for use during periods of high raw colour) at SASTA Congress 2011, co-authored by Ish Singh. The paper was presented very confidently and professionally, and although not

Prize winners from Congress 2011


85th Annual SASTA CONGRESS 15 - 17 August 2012

International Convention Centre, Durban

It’s time to submit Abstracts for the SASTA Congress 2012!

The Organisers invite submissions in the following categories:

Peer reviewed articles Full Papers Review Papers Operational Papers (Factory section only)

Non-peer reviewed articles Short, non-refereed, paper (Agriculture section only) Practical Success Stories (Agriculture section only) PostersTechnical workshop/Commercial presentations

Abstracts of 250 words maximum must be submitted to the SASTA Admin-istrator by 20 January 2012.

Please refer to the ‘Instructions for Authors’ for submission details. Abstracts must be submitted on the SASTA Abstract template (available from [email protected] or from website www.sasta.co.za).

All queries should be directed to the SASTA Administrator. The SASTA Congress Organising Committee looks forward to receiving your Abstracts.

a new concept the gathered data is useful. The purpose is clear and is related to the findings and conclu-sions. The work gathered sufficient data that a cost benefit analysis was possible from the pilot data. Significant effort went into simulating the factory conditions and what could be done practically on the large scale.

Factory Operational Paper Award

Q Maseko, R Singh and N Motsa - Steps taken to improve refined sugar turbidity at the Pongola Sugar Refinery.

A good factory experience paper that was a mixture of technical problems arising from neglected maintenance as well as management problems. The value of a "project management approach" could have been more highly emphasised. The paper was well presented and is a good factory document that will be referenced in the future.

Sasta Factory Student Prize

Not Awarded.

The two prizewinners who will attend ISSCT Congress in Brazil

in 2013

Innovation Awards 2012Call for nominations

Nominations are invited from SASTA members for candidates to be consid-ered for the 2012 Innovation Awards, in either the Factory or the Agricultural sectors. Please send your nomination with a detailed motivation to [email protected]. Closing date for 2012 nominations: 30 June 2012

The criteria

The criteria which are considered by Council are: The design, development and implementation of an idea, machine, process or technique which has shown definite value in improving technology, cost-effectiveness or sustain-ability or safety of factory and agricultural operations. Corporate innovations will not be considered.

The award

The award consists of a trophy (mounted steel sugar cube for Factory and mounted steel plough for Agriculture) and a SASTA certificate.


The SASTA Symposium on Sustainable Soil Use was held on the 31st August 2011 at the SASA Kwa-Shukela auditorium at Mt Edgecombe.

This event attracted a large and varied audience. Tickets were “sold out” within two weeks of being advertised. There is no doubt that the highly respected speakers were a great draw-card to this event, in particular Prof. Malcolm Sumner. Unfortunately Prof. Sumner had to cancel his trip at the last minute due to medical reasons. SASTA and the audience wished Prof. Sumner a speedy recovery. The speakers that gave presentations at the SASTA Soils Symposium were as follows: 1) Dr Neil Miles on behalf of Prof. Malcolm Sumner; 2) Dr Graham Kingston; 3) Dr Peter Thorburn; 4) Dr Mart Farina; 5) Dr Brian Purchase and 6) Dr Shaun Berry.

Professor Malcolm Sumner is a highly respected expert in the field of soil science and was the first recipient of the SASTA International Visitors’ Grant. Prof. Sumner currently holds the position of Regents’ Professor of Environmental Soil Science Emeritus at the University of Georgia, Athens, USA. This is the highest recognition conferred on academics at this institution. Dr Neil Miles presented Prof. Sumner’s talk. Dr Miles is a senior soil scientist at SASRI. He studied

at UNP, and has spent 28 years with the KZN Department of Agriculture as a research scientist and manager. Prof. Sumner’s presentation focused on the management of soil nutrients and the optimisation of yield. Work conducted amongst small and large scale growers in Central America was presented. Factors contributing to decreased yields were identified as the incorrect use of chemical fertilisers; use of “snake oils”; subsoil acidity; nematodes and fertiliser burn. Solutions to these problems were found and implemented, with lime and gypsum being applied, nematodes being controlled and fertiliser being applied more appropriately. The application of these solutions by the growers resulted in an increase in yield.

Dr Graham Kingston was next in the day’s line up of eminent speakers. Dr Kingston has recently retired from BSES in Australia after 42 years of research in sugarcane agronomy. Dr Kingston addressed the audience on nutrient management challenges in the Australian sugar industry. The Australian sugar industry’s position in the north east of the country situates it in close proximity to the world-renowned Great Barrier Reef. It is in this context that growers need to fertilise their crops and monitor their environmental pollution.

Dr Peter Thorburn, a principal research scientist at the CSIRO in Brisbane, was the third speaker. Dr Thorburn’s current work aims to determine management systems that can reduce detrimental environmental impacts while continuing to produce positive economic and social outcomes. Much of his work involves the development and application of simulation models. Dr Thorburn’s research has led to significant developments in reducing the environmental impacts of farming on aquatic and marine environments,

SASTA Soils Symposium 2011

Speakers: Left to right: Mart Farina, Gavin Smith (SASTA President), Shaun Berry, Brian Purchase, Peter Thorburn, Graham Kingston, Neil Miles,

Dirk McElligott (Chair).


and through the mit igat ion of greenhouse gas emissions caused by agricultural production.

Dr Mart Farina, a specialist advisor, obtained his B.Sc., M.Sc. and PhD in Agronomy at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. He has worked for many years as a soil fertility researcher with the SA Department of Agriculture. Dr Farina presented ‘Soil Cover: why I’m a convert’. He used the results of a soil-borne disease investigation, funded by the Maize Trust, KZ Agriculture and Omnia Fertiliser, to illustrate his reasons for being a ‘convert to cover’.

Dr Brian Purchase has a BSc (Agric) from UNP and a PhD from London University. He spent 13 years as a lecturer at the University of Rhodesia before joining the sugar industry. Dr Purchase’s talk was titled ‘Carbon legislation, carbon mitigation and sustainable agriculture – what does

the future hold?’ Climate change mitigation via increased soil carbon can be seen as a ‘triple win’ – through development (better farming), climate change resilience (e.g. better water retention) and cl imate change mitigation (reduced GHGs).

Dr Shaun Berry presented the last presentation for the day. Dr Berry is a nematologist at SASRI. His research centres on managing nematode-related problems in sugarcane, and this covers a wide range of disciplines, including soil health, variety choice, chemical and biological control, nematode community management, and developing diagnostic methods. Dr Berry’s talk was titled ‘Nematodes – a war lost?’ His war-themed presentation introduced us to the ‘enemy’ – plant-parasitic nematodes – and presented evidence of their destructive capacity, along with the ‘weapons’ in our arsenal enabling us to combat them.

Some of the 160 delegates at the SASTA Soils Symposium in the Kwashukela Auditorium.

This brought the formal presentations to a close, though the discussions continued well into the afternoon. Dirk McElligott (chair of the proceedings) thanked Gavin Smith, the SASTA council and Danile Macdonald (SASTA administrator) for making this event possible. Neil Miles; Rian van Antwerpen; Michael van der Laan; Carel Bezuidenhout were thanked for arranging the speakers for the symposium. The presenters and the audience were thanked for making the day a success.

Article written by Ruth Rhodes * and abridged by

Sumita Ramgareeb

*The 9-page full length report on this SASTA Symposium, compiled by Ruth Rhodes, is available on the SASTA website, as are the pdfs of the powerpoint presentations from each speaker. See www.sasta.co.za for more information.


SASTA ROADSHOW 2012The SASTA “Roadshow” returns to Mpumalanga in 2012! The proposed programme highlights a few papers from SAS-

TA Congress 2011 which are relevant to the growers and researchers in the agricultural sector. This fourth Roadshow

will happen on Thursday 23th February 2012 in Mpumalanga, hoping to reach the growers and agricultural sector sugar

industry personnel from Malelane, Komatipoort and Swaziland. SASTA members will be charged R100.00 to cover the

direct costs of teas and lunches on the day, whereas non-members will be charged R285.00 which includes not only

this Roadshow but also SASTA membership for one year (2012), and therefore will secure member prices for all other

2012 SASTA functions and events including Congress 2012 in August in Durban.

Date: Thursday 23rd February 2012

Time: 09:00 – 14:30

Venue: The Big Hall, TSB Training Centre, Malelane

Fee for attending: R100 for SASTA members/R285.00 for non-members. This fee covers teas and lunch on the day, and a hard copy of the day’s Proceedings. For the non-members, the fee includes SASTA membership for 2012.

To book a place and receive an invoice, reply to : Danile Macdonald, SASTA, P Bag X02, Mount Edgecombe, 4300. Tel: +27-31-5087543 Fax: +27-31-5087420 Email: [email protected]. When booking, please supply the names of delegates (For name badge purposes), their contact phone numbers and email addresses (for communication purposes), postal addresses and VAT reg numbers (if needed for the invoice). “First come (and paid) – First served” basis will apply.

Programme:

09:00 – 09:30: Tea/Coffee on arrival, registration, receive hard copies of the programme and papers.

09:30: Introduction to SASTA and background to Roadshows - Gavin Smith

09:35: Annual Review of Milling season 2010-2011 – Gavin Smith

09:55: Annual Review of Sugarcane Production from agricultural perspective 2010-2011 – Abraham Singels

10:15 Soil fertility / nutrition – Neil Miles

10:35: Questions

10:45-11:15 TEA BREAK

11:15: Biosecurity against invasive alien insect pests: a case study of Chilo sacchariphagus (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) in the southern African region – Mike Way

11:35 River water quality in the South African sugar industry – Michael van der Laan

11:55 Effects of lodging and anti-lodging chemicals on the productivity of variety N25: Preliminary findings – Riekert van Heerden

12:15 Facilitating institutional change: a precursor for development success? - Jabu Dlamini

12:35 Aligning stakeholders to achieve the best outcome in agriculture – B Qwabe

12:55 Questions

13:00- 14:30: LUNCH and DISCUSSION


Fully Funded International

Visitors GrantsCall for Interest

The South African Sugar Technologists’ Association pro-vides grants (both in the field of agriculture and milling) to fund research visits by international experts. Members of SASTA who are interested to apply for this grant are welcome to submit the attached form. Grant applica-tions have no deadlines and can be received at any time. Please ensure that the following criteria are met:The visitor must be willing to spend at least two weeks in South Africa while working intensively with local scientists on an approved small project.

• The project must have a distinctive outcome, such as a new set of standards, a scientific paper, etc...

• The project should generate a relatively wide interest among sugar technologists and should ideally be of a pre-competitive nature.

SASTA PRICE LIST 2012 VAT REG NO: 4300 227 503

Item Price Excl vat Vat at 14% TotalFull membership R 162.28 R 22.72 R 185.00Associate membership R 184.21 R 25.79 R 210.00Retired membership R 40.57 R 5.68 R 46.25Corporate membership R 543.86 R 76.14 R 620.00Corresponding membership R 315.79 R 44.21 R 360.00Sugar spoons R 114.04 R 15.96 R 130.00Ties R 26.32 R 3.68 R 30.00Laser pointer pens torch R 17.54 R 2.46 R 20.00CD proceedings R 184.21 R 25.79 R 210.00Lab manual CD for members R 280.70 R 39.30 R 320.00Lab manual CD for non-members R 464.91 R 65.09 R 530.00postage local R 30.70 R 4.30 R 35.00postage other countries R 57.02 R 7.98 R 65.00courier local as quotedcourier international as quotedbank charges for foreign cheques R 140.35 R 19.65 R 160.00 Congress Member early bird R 1,513.16 R 211.84 R 1,725.00Non member early bird R 1,828.95 R 256.05 R 2,085.00Member standard R 1,864.04 R 260.96 R 2,125.00Non member standard R 2,214.91 R 310.09 R 2,525.00Member late R 2,228.07 R 311.93 R 2,540.00Non member late R 2,578.95 R 361.05 R 2,940.00Member Day delegate R 1,254.39 R 175.61 R 1,430.00Non member Day delegate R 1,605.26 R 224.74 R 1,830.00Exhibition stand bottom of range R 16,052.63 R 2,247.37 R 18,300.00Exhibition stand top of range R 23,684.21 R 3,315.79 R 27,000.00

• To further enhance networking, local university academ-ics and students should be attracted to the activities that will be carried out.

• The visitor may be asked to act as a keynote speaker at a coinciding SASTA workshop.

• This grant is available to SASTA and non-SASTA mem-bers.

Please complete the attached form and submit it to SASTA. SASTA council will review these applications and will in-vite successful candidates for an elicited application. The decision of SASTA council is final and no appeals will be entertained. Address your application and any questions to:The SASTA Secretariat,Private Bag x02,Mt Edgecombe, 4300Email: [email protected]

More information about SASTA can be obtained from www.sasta.co.za


Fully Funded International Visitors GrantsCall for Interest

APPLICANT (must be a member of SASTA)

Name: ............................................................................................................................................................

Title: ......................

Associated organisation: ................................................................................................................................

Email address: ......................................................................................................

Phone: .................................................. FAX: .....................................................

PROPOSED INTERNATIONAL VISITOR

Name: .............................................................................................................................................................

Title: ...................... Country of Origin: ...............................................................

Associated organisation: ................................................................................................................................

Research topic:

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Short Description of the proposed topic:

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PLEASE NOTEThe SASTA member who applies for this grant undertakes to (a) compile a more detailed proposal on request of SASTA council, (b) be the main driver and organiser of the events that are associated with the visitor, and (c) report back to SASTA council as requested.

Documents

SASTA · Gavin Smith (Industry Support Man-ager, SMRI) Vice-President: Kerry Redshaw ... Method development for Near Infrared Spectroscopy has been a research fo-