Sustainable Sugarcane Cultivation in India Through Threats of Red Rot by Varietal Management
Sugarcane is traditionally cultivated in India since time immemorial to extract gur and Khandsari sugar. In the country, white sugar manufacturing started ~ 300 years ago the with imported Saccharum officinarum genotypes. After 1850s, sugar industry expanded rapidly and such expansion also led to em...
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Published in | Sugar tech : an international journal of sugar crops & related industries Vol. 23; no. 2; pp. 239 - 253 |
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Main Author | |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
New Delhi
Springer India
01.04.2021
Springer Springer Nature B.V |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Sugarcane is traditionally cultivated in India since time immemorial to extract
gur
and
Khandsari
sugar. In the country, white sugar manufacturing started ~ 300 years ago the with imported
Saccharum officinarum
genotypes. After 1850s, sugar industry expanded rapidly and such expansion also led to emergence of new threats in the form of red rot caused by the dreaded fungal pathogen
Colletotrichum falcatum.
The new threat caused production losses in the then Presidencies of Madras, Bombay and Bengal. Sugarcane Breeding Institute (SBI) was established in 1912 to breed sugarcane varieties for red rot resistance with other desirable agronomical traits. The institute achieved commercial success by releasing the first interspecific hybrid variety Co 205 during 1918 and release of many such varieties to the subtropical region revolutionized sugarcane cultivation by improved cane yield leading to attaining self-sufficiency in sugar requirement. Although the new varieties sustained the boom, red rot started attacking the elite varieties in different decades through a series of epidemics. These epidemics hindered sugarcane cultivation for a while in different states; however after each epidemic, new varieties were deployed to counter the disease onslaught and saved sugar industry from the brink. Many superior varieties with red rot resistance have benefitted the industry, but evolution of new
C. falcatum
pathotypes caused breakdown of resistance and made the life of many elite varieties short-lived. In the recent decades, variation in
C. falcatum
was characterized, designated into new pathotypes, and new pathotypes were used for red rot screening. The historical red rot epidemics in the country over the decades resembled to ‘boom and bust cycle’ reported in cereal rust diseases. Domination of single variety combined with flood during monsoon seasons/waterlogging favoured red rot epidemics. Notwithstanding red rot epidemics, red rot-resistant varieties played a vital role to manage the disease and to sustain sugarcane cultivation in India for more than 100 years. |
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ISSN: | 0972-1525 0974-0740 |
DOI: | 10.1007/s12355-020-00882-3 |