Technology advances in sugarcane propagation: A patent citation study

Sugarcane propagation technologies have, in recent years, been the focus of interest of large corporations involved in the sugar and ethanol business. The objective of this study is to present the methodology used to identify the technology domain found in different sugarcane propagation technologies. The methodology was based on the bibliometric analysis of patents, including a meticulous selection of the most representative technologies used by the sugarcane market and the application of patent citation. The results report the process developed to identify a novel technology domain of high complexity involving different fields of science resulting in a set of sugar cane propagation technologies and show that the main technology advances have happened in the last decade (2005-2015), especially in seedling containers and the use of chemical compounds for seedling treatment. Further studies are recommended to help understand how these new technologies will impact the sugarcane production-chain in Brazil.