Application of visible and shortwave near infrared spectrometer to predict sugarcane quality from different sample forms

Spectroscopic methods have been proposed to predict sugarcane quality in the field. There are different sample forms could be used to predict sugar content using spectroscopic methods; raw juice (RJ), clear juice (CJ), fibrated samples (FS), stalk cross sectional surface (SCS) and stalk skin (SS). Thus, this study was conducted to identify the optimum sample form for predicting quality using a low-cost and portable spectrometer. A total of 100 samples from each sample form were scanned using a visible-shortwave near infrared (Vis/SWNIR) spectrometer. The experiment was conducted under the same experimental setup and all data were treated using the same statistical methods. All spectral data were calibrated against brix value. The coefficient of determination (R2) for SCS, FS, CJ, SS and RJ were 0.88, 0.86, 0.84, 0.81 and 0.80, respectively. The study found that a Vis/SWNIR spectrometer could be used to predict sugar content from all sample forms.The stalk samples scanned on cross sectional surface was found to be the optimum sample form for quality prediction using a Vis/SWNIR spectrometer.