Overview of Techniques for Sustainable Sugar Beet Production

Abstract

European sugar production is influenced by the demand for alternative sweeteners, new technologies, and Common Agricultural Policy. Sugar beet is a biological resource with high carbon accumulation; chemically and energy-intensive crop with high rate of assimilation and carbon-dependent microbiome. The structure of associated greenhouse gas emissions is well known. In this review, currently available tools able to reduce environmental burden and the risk of resistance are summarized from the viewpoint of sustainability. In the field of herbicide protection, strip tillage combined with early-sown, fast-growing and freezing out intercrops is discussed, combined with tolerance to acetolactate synthase enzyme inhibitors, herbicide point application techniques, and autonomous inter-row weeding systems. Modern methods of insecticidal protection are based on cultivation of companion crops with camouflage or repellent effects, biological traps used by organic sugar beet growers and plant protection products based on essential oils. Current state of European insecticide scene calls for the utmost need for the integration of signaling methods and techniques of chemical and physical fixation of conventional plant protection products not burdened by resistance. Protection against pathogens is discussed according to the activity of the associated microflora, subsequently categorized into four lines of defense. Biofungicides are widely available, but for now, too technology-demanding and costly. The implementation of new fungicidal biotechnologies based on breeding associated with microbiome is very close, but - for now - still missing proper impulse for their introduction into practice, caused by a fundamental legislative restriction or economic pressure.