SUGARCANE DISEASES BY JIMI PATEL Mo.No:9924474599

INTRODUCTION Sugarcane is not only cash crop for the growers, but it is main source of white crystal sugar. It also provides grower with a very good substitute of sugar as ‘gur’ and ‘khandsari’ (brown sugar). Sugarcane tops serve as fodder for cattle, baggage and leaf trashes as fuel, stubble and roots as organic manure and crop residues as mulch and compost. It may also be kept in mind that sugarcane leaves are used as substrate for the artificial cultivation of edible mushrooms.

There are many constrain, including the heavy losses, caused by a number of diseases to the sugarcane crop. More than 50 diseases are reported in sugarcane, fungi, bacteria, viruses and nematodes cause the most destructive diseases. These all diseases are injurious in some areas, in some years and on some plant parts. However, the causes, symptoms, transmission, perpetuation and control measures of different most important diseases of sugarcane are given as bellow.

WHIP SMUT (Ustilago scitaminea) Symptoms: The affected canes produce long, black whip-like and coiled or curved shoots, which are covered with a thin silvery membrane, containing masses of chlamydospores of the fungus.

The smutted shoots may arise from the top of the cane or from lateral buds. Later on that membrane ruptures and releases a multitude of spores, which contaminate soil and the standing crop. In certain cases, the infected plants remain stunted in growth with increased tillering of little value. The diseased plants are unfit for use. Perpetuation: The disease is carried over from year to year by ratooning or planting sets taken from smutted shoots of cane. Soil borne infection may also takes place, while wind disseminates disease.

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