Pathology

Irrespective of the scientific advances made, sugarcane continues to suffer from onslaught of large number of diseases. Among these, red rot and smut are the major disease which create substantial yield losses to the farmer.

During the 90's, one of the challenges faced by R&D was to contain the onslaught of red rot disease specifically in Nellikuppam command area. Several steps taken by the R&D, Extension and Operations team resulted in containment of this disease within the economic threshold (from 38% in 1993 to <1% from 1998 onwards) and gained the confidence of farmer in cultivating sugarcane.

In addition to the seed certification for new varieties, development of disease protection measures and monitoring of crops for the incidence of disease, the Pathologist closely work along with the Breeders to develop disease resistant varieties.