ST. GABRIEL - Part of the success of Louisiana's $4 billion sugarcane industry is the work of the LSU AgCenter and the possibilities it creates through genetic engineering.

"Sugarcane is the number one valued grown crop in Louisiana," LSU AgCenter Sugarcane Specialist Kenneth Gravois said.

By its nature, sugarcane is a tropical crop. It originated in the western Pacific islands and was brought to Louisiana, a sub-tropical climate, in the 18th century.

That's why the AgCenter is using science to breed varieties of sugarcane more suited to the state's conditions at a sugar research station in St. Gabriel.

"Strong breeding programs to develop new varieties, locally adapted, genetics programs that manipulate the genome into these designer varieties that we have," Gravois said.

Through science, Louisiana has been able to continue growing its sugarcane yield. Scientists manipulate crop genes through various methods including genetic engineering and genome editing to improve traits like yield size, nutritional content and pest resistance.

Part of the success of the AgCenter comes from partnerships with the United States Department of Agriculture office in Houma.

"They have bred our local variety to some of these wild species, and we've kind of parsed out these resilience genes so to speak. Better cold tolerance, better drought tolerance," Gravois said.

Gravois says that because of this science, farmers can get multiple annual harvests off that original planting.

"Inside of a breeding program, we isolate elite clones. These are parents. We put them on, what we call photo period carts. We induce them to flower by manipulating the photoperiod and the length of the day that they're exposed to. When we have two flowers, we can hybridize, or make a cross between a male parent and a female parent," Gravois said.

Over the last decade, the industry has grown by nearly 150,000 acres because augmented genetics have allowed crops to move further north.

While at the station, sugarcane seedlings were being planted in the field. There are many different varieties between these seedlings.

"They have to overwinter, we have harsh winters, sugarcane is not used to harsh winters, that's why we've kind of picked out some of these winter hardiness genes from the wild ancestors.

Whichever seedling varieties go through winter and remerge next spring are the ones the AgCenter is looking for. The best ones will then go through the yield program, where they'll be observed for things like disease and insect reactions.

"You walk along thousands and thousands of clones or experimental varieties and it's getting rid of the worse and isolating the group that's the best and then we start putting these varieties into yield trials," Gravois said.

This is part of a 12-year program to develop a variety of sugar cane that will help sustain the Louisiana industry for years to come.

"We released a new variety this year from the USDA program, 18-803. The cross for that variety was made in 2013," Gravois said.