A sett treatment device for fungal disease management and healthy nursery programme in sugarcane.

Abstract

A practically feasible mechanized means of sett treatment in comparison with conventional overnight soaking for the management of red rot with fungicides were standardized earlier at ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute (SBI). Further, larger size sett treatment devices (STD) were fabricated and validated for fungal disease management and healthy nursery programme. Results of the present investigation clearly established that the sett treatment in combination with other delivery methods viz., spraying and soil application/ micro irrigation were highly effective against major fungal diseases of sugarcane such as red rot, smut and wilt. The efficacy of fungicide treatment was validated under disease endemic locations in Cauvery delta in Tamil Nadu with disease susceptible varieties. Sett treatment alone was able to protect the setts from sett and soil borne inocula of all the three diseases and along with other delivery methods significantly improved plant survival and correspondingly a higher yield. Also the applicability of sett treatment device in delivering various other inputs viz., fungicide, insecticide, biofertilizers, macro- and micro nutrients was validated at two sugar factories in Erode and Namakkal Districts in Tamil Nadu and standardized the combinations for healthy nursery programme in sugarcane. The study indicated that the mechanized treatment has several advantages such as possible to treat different kinds of sugarcane planting materials, simultaneous delivery of compatible inputs before planting, economical in terms of chemical usage as it requires less quantity of chemical/ input with repeated use, rapid and less cumbersome, amenable for large scale application under farmer’s field conditions and possible to adopt this technology for treating planting materials of major vegetatively propagated crops other than sugarcane. The new device has opened new vistas towards effective management of major fungal diseases and healthy nursery programmes in sugarcane.