To reduce competition between food and fuel and improve the lives of current and future generations, the production of biofuels needs to be made more efficient and sustainable.

Syngenta has developed tropical sugar beet (TSB) varieties that can yield the same quantity of sugar (or alcohol or ethanol) per land unit as sugar cane in half the time.

This allows farmers to grow a second crop on the same land within the season, thereby increasing agricultural output and raising incomes.

The new varieties also use about a third of the water typically required by sugar cane, saving almost 10 million liters per hectare.