Emerging diseases of sugarcane and recent approaches in sugarcane disease management

Abstract

The fungal diseases like red rot, smut and smut were responsible for the elimination of many elite commercial varieties in the past in different epidemics. Additionally many of the non-fungal diseases contribute to decline in their performance due to ‘varietal degeneration’. Lack of awareness on seed cane health and ignoring quarantine regulations resulted in introduction of diseases, their epidemics and varietal degeneration in the country. The clones which can resist degeneration need to be identified at early stages of varietal selection to avert their rejection at ZVT stage. Sugarcane varieties vary in their potential against different diseases and any elite commercial variety may not possess tolerance against all the major diseases. Hence to sustain the productivity in such varieties alternate management strategies need to be developed. Recent outbreak of pokkah boeng and rust in different parts of the country could be due to climate change. Hence future research efforts should also focus on this area of science to address the issue of minor diseases becoming major diseases in sugarcane. Also Fusaria associated with sugarcane and their disease epidemiology needs to be studied in detail. YLD has created havoc to sugarcane cultivation in the country and we have evolved strategies to manage the disease through meristem culture combined with molecular diagnosis of the virus. Hence, need of the hour is to establish YLD-free nurseries in different sugar mills to reduce disease severity. Also YLD resistant parents have to be included the future breeding programme to manage the disease through disease resistance. Disease surveillance programmes in the country need further strengthening including use of remote sensing approach. This would lead to creation of disease maps for various diseases in sugarcane and this would facilitate developing possible forewarning systems and varietal deployment in a region in the future.