Abstract 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.

中文翻译：

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甘蔗繁殖技术进步：专利引证研究

摘要 近年来，甘蔗繁殖技术已成为参与糖和乙醇业务的大公司关注的焦点。本研究的目的是介绍用于识别不同甘蔗繁殖技术中发现的技术领域的方法。该方法基于专利文献计量分析，包括精心挑选甘蔗市场使用的最具代表性的技术和专利引用的应用。结果报告了为确定涉及不同科学领域的高度复杂的新技术领域而开发的过程，从而产生了一套甘蔗繁殖技术，并表明主要技术进步发生在过去十年（2005-2015 年），特别是在育苗容器中和使用化合物进行育苗处理。建议进一步研究以帮助了解这些新技术将如何影响巴西的甘蔗生产链。