36. Whip Smut of Sugarcane and Their Control

 Sugarcane

Introduction:

    Sugarcane is a valuable crop for growers as it serves as the primary source of white crystal sugar, and also provides alternative sources of sugar such as 'gur' and 'khandsari' (brown sugar). In addition, sugarcane tops can be used as cattle fodder, bagasse and leaf trash can be used as fuel, and the stubble and roots can serve as organic manure. Crop residues can also be utilized for mulch and compost. It is worth noting that sugarcane leaves are also used as a substrate for growing edible mushrooms.

    In Pakistan, sugarcane cultivation faces numerous challenges, including significant losses caused by various diseases. Over 50 diseases have been reported in sugarcane, with fungi, bacteria, viruses, and nematodes causing the most damage. The extent of losses varies depending on the crop variety and location, and cannot be ignored, neglected, or taken lightly as they can significantly impact the crop. These diseases can affect different plant parts, and their occurrence is influenced by a range of factors such as geography, weather, and time. Symptoms or signs of the diseases raise a concern about their potential effects on the quantity and quality of the sugarcane crop.

    Sugarcane, a crop grown in over 120 countries on around 26.27 million hectares, is the largest commercial crop globally. It yields approximately 1.90 billion tonnes worldwide, providing 80% of the world's sugar. The crop produces hundreds of tons of green matter per hectare annually, giving 75,000 million calories. However, sugarcane takes 12-14 months to mature and harvest, making it vulnerable to many biotic and abiotic factors, such as pathogens and insect pests that can reduce production by up to 20%. Fungal pathogens, in particular, pose a significant challenge, with over 100 fungi reported to cause sugarcane diseases.

Whip Smut of Sugarcane

Causal Organism:

    The fungal disease, known as smut, is attributed to Ustilago scitaminea. The fungus infects sugarcane plants via buds present on erect stems or sprouting buds in the ground. Once inside, the fungus establishes itself near the plant's growing points or meristems.

Symptoms:

• Sugarcane smut is identifiable by a black, whip-like structure that replaces the spindle leaf and grows from the sugarcane plant's growing point. Abnormal whips, sometimes containing flower parts, can also develop.
• The whips are produced in shoots arising from infected cane cuttings, contaminated soil, or side shoots from mature stalks. 
• The thin membrane of the whip eventually ruptures to release a mass of black spores, leaving behind a straw-colored core.
• Before whip formation, the youngest leaves undergo shortening and crinkling. 
• Infected plants tend to be stunted, and individual stalks appear thin and grass-like.

Disease Cycle:

    Sugarcane smut spreads through teliospores produced in the smut whip found in soil or on plants. Teliospores germinate in water and produce promycelium, which undergoes meiosis to form four haploid sporidia. The fungus is bipolar, producing two different spore types that must mate to create a dikaryon that infects sugarcane's meristematic tissue by penetrating bud scales. The fungus grows within the tissue, inducing flowering structures that it colonizes to produce teliospores. These structures transform into a whip-like sorus, covered by a silvery peridium that peels back to expose black-brown teliospores. These spores disperse via wind and repeat the cycle. Teliospores are reddish-brown, round or subovoid, smooth to moderately echinulate, and 6.5-8 um. Susceptibility to S. scitamineum populations in each area should be tested before distributing sugarcane cultivars.

Spread or Transmission:

    Sugarcane smut is mainly transmitted via wind-dispersed spores or by planting contaminated or infected cane cuttings. Typically, spores spread over short distances, up to 10-15 meters, but they can travel many kilometers during strong winds or cyclones. Spore transport on machinery and shoes is also feasible.

    Moist soil can support spore survival for only 2-3 months, whereas dry soil or other arid environments can sustain them for longer periods. The fungus remains viable within infected sugarcane plants as long as the host plant is alive, as it requires a living plant to produce spores.

Control:

1. It is advisable to avoid using sets from sugarcane plants affected by smut for planting.
2. Seed sets can be disinfected by immersing them in a solution of 0.1% mercuric chloride or formalin for 5 minutes, followed by covering them with a moist cloth for 2 hours. Other effective chemicals available in the market can also be used.
3. Internal infection can be eliminated by exposing sets to hot water treatment at 52°C for 18 minutes.
4. Sugarcane plants affected by smut should be uprooted and burned before the spores burst.
5. It is recommended to avoid ratooning of crops affected by the disease.
6. Practicing suitable crop rotations with non-host crops can help in controlling the disease.
7. Planting sugarcane in healthy soil is essential to avoid infection.
8. Where the disease is prevalent, it is advisable to use dry sowing for the crop.
9. Autumn planting of sugarcane should be avoided.
10. Encouraging the use of resistant varieties is recommended to help control the spread of the disease.

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22. Sugarcane Production Technology

 Sugarcane

Scientific Name:

Saccharum officinarum

Sugarcane Biology:

• Sugarcane is a crucial tropical crop having C4 carbohydrate metabolism which, allied with its perennial nature, makes it one of the most productive cultivated flowers. 
• It's far more commonly used to supply sugar, accounting for almost two-thirds of global manufacturing. Lately, it has gained improved interest due to its essential potential for bio-fuel manufacturing. 
• But, sugarcane has one of the different complex crop genomes, which has long hampered the improvement of sugarcane genetics to guide breeding for crop improvement programs. Sugarcane belongs to the genus Saccharum L, a part of the Poaceae family (Grasses), and the Andropogonae tribe, which encompasses the best polyploid species.

Economic Importance of Sugarcane:

• Sugarcane is a leading cash crop, which performs a huge role in our country-wide economy next to cotton. It has a 0.7% share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2017-18. 
• In Punjab, during 2018-19 sugarcane turned into planted in an area of 710.93 thousand hectares having a production of 44.91 million tones with a mean cane yield of sixty-eight. 
• 51 t/ha confirmed a lower of 17.2% in cultivated places and 18.5% in manufacturing during the last 12 months. 
• It gives raw fabric to sugarcane enterprises particularly and to the chemical & paper industries in well-known. It additionally may assist in minimizing the electricity crises in us by way of co-generation. 
• The sugarcane tops serve as fodder for cattle all through the shortage of fodder in winter. The sugarcane segment became one of the parts of the Ayub Agricultural studies Institute, Faisalabad in 1962 and was upgraded to Sugarcane Research Institute, Faisalabad in 1978. 
• The main targets of this institute are to adapt high cane and sugar-yielding varieties that can be proof against biotic stresses sorts together with the improvement of stepped-forward manufacturing generation.

Production Technology of Sugarcane:

Land Preparation:

• Sugarcane is a deep-rooted crop and right land preparation performs a critical role in the improvement of cane root machines and achieving the best increase in yield. Land should be organized by using deep plowing at least after each year. The soil ought to be disked.
• It's far very vital that well-rotten farmyard manure (FYM) should be applied a month previous to land coaching. Press dust from the sugar enterprise is another excellent source of natural remember and nutrients. Inexperienced manuring might also serve the cause.
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• The soil within the prepared subject has to be friable and well-labored so that complete germination takes region and afterward flowers develop with no inhibiting boundaries.

Planting Time:

• The selection of the correct planting technique and schedule substantially impacts crop growth, maturity, and yield. When considering that low temperature and moisture pressure are adverse to germination and subsequent establishment, the planting season in subtropical regions is ideally spring. But in regions where iciness is excessive sufficient to limit increase or maybe kill sugarcane, planting cloth may additionally best be to be had in autumn, as a result, necessitating pre-wintry weather planting. In tropical areas, especially wherein irrigation isn't always practiced, a sufficiently moist season has to be decided on for planting and established order.
• There are planting seasons: fall and spring. Fall planting begins from the first week of September and keeps to mid-October within Punjab and Sindh, while within the NWFP planting is performed in October and November. Spring planting starts evolved from mid-February and lasts till the end of March within Punjab and Sindh. Those planting times are strictly determined because overdue planting can reduce the yield by as a lot as 30 percent.
• September planted crop normally produces 25 to 35 % higher yield. In Pakistan, Planting time Sugarcane is typically accomplished in the autumn and spring seasons. Autumn planting is of high yield and excessive sugar recovery compared to spring planting. In reality, September planting offers very luxuriant growth, which is at risk of accommodations in most cases. The crop gives a suitable look till June-July but is issued to accommodations in July or maybe in advance if there are windstorms or immoderate rains. Round 26 is consistent with cent of the growers planted sugarcane in October, forty-five according to cent on November, 2 keeping cent in December, and seven percent in February.

Seed Rate and Planting pattern:

    Appropriate seed charge and spacing are often ignored by farmers, with the result that the greatest plant population, that's a critical thing in sugarcane production, needs to be performed within the discipline. The seed fee and spacing between rows range with variety. Thick-cane cultivars like 'BL-four', 'Triton', and 'PR-1000' require a better seed rate and extra area among the rows than thin and medium-cane varieties. 8 to 9 tonnes of stripped cane according to hectare for thick types, and 6 to seven tones for medium to skinny types is enough to produce a favored plant population of about 0.15 million canes/ha. A spacing of 1 m between the rows of wide varieties, and zero.60-0.75 m for thin to medium sorts permits enough area for operations like intercultural and earthing up.

Method of Planting:

• Sugarcane ought to be planted at a row spacing of ninety cm to at least one m.  Budded double sets must be positioned to give up inside the furrows including a 2 to the three-cm soil layer. About 3.2 to 4 tonnes of seed (80 to hundred maunds) of thin cane varieties and four to 5 tonnes of seed (hundred to 120 maunds) of thick types is enough to plant one acre.

• Research has shown appropriate yield will increase in tonnage and sugar in line with acre while the planted row was widened from the V-furrow to the 15- to 18-inch furrow. It confirmed similar yield increases because the furrow width became increased from 15 to 18 to 24 inches. Based totally on this research and the problems encountered by growers in handling furrow widths of more than 18 inches, it's miles counseled that growers use a fifteen- to 18-inch furrow for planting in 2001. Growers who can efficiently handle the 24-inch width furrow are endorsed to accomplish that. It is also suggested that the furrow opener be constructed to depart an extensive bottom with a mild indentation on each aspect of the furrow and a gentle ridge of loose soil within the center of the furrow backside. This beginning configuration can be obtained by using attaching an unmarried disk on each aspect of the row opener to dig out the furrow facets and deposit the soil within the furrow middle. Some growers have discovered that packing rows ahead of starting will provide more uniform furrows while commencing with a 3-row opener.

Treatment                                                 Cane yield (t/ha)

Ordinary setts (unsoaked)                             82.76

Soaked in water                                             62.05

Soaked in cow urine                                     61.19

Soaked in 20% KmnO4                                     67. 16

Varieties:

1. CP-43-33

2. CP- 77-400

3. CP 81-1435

4. ABT superb

5. BF - 162

6. SPSG - 26

7. SPF - 234

8. BL -4

9. T - 10

Fertilizer Application:

• Nutrient performs the most crucial role in sugarcane cultivation. There may be absolute confidence that a sugarcane crop wishes nutrients because fertilizers are liable for almost 50 % of the yield in sugarcane.
• Throughout the early stage of the sugarcane plant (in the course of tillering), from the third to the 6th months after planting, sugarcane needs nutrients. These vitamins are essential for proper crop improvement.
• Growing crops continuously and decreasing the usage of green manure & natural manure reduces the fertility of the soil.
• Typically, fertilizers advice range from nation to kingdom relying upon the soil type, crop length, yield level & irrigation practices. Before fertilizer software, soil tests have to be executed to recognize approximately all the soil nutrient deficiencies and corrective measures for reaching the most reliable yield.
• Therefore, before sowing, plowing must be carried out by using spreading rotted manure of cow dung at the rate of 200 quintals consistent per hectare.
• Aside from this, the sugarcane crop requires hundred and eighty-two hundred kg of nitrogen, 60-eighty kg of phosphorus, 50-60 kg of potash, and 30 kg of sulfur.
• On the side of this, an aggregate of 25 kg of micronutrients ought to be used in keeping with hectare.
• Do not blend micronutrients with primary nutrients.
• Observe one-third quantity of nitrogen and the full amount of phosphorus, potash & sulfur at the sowing time. Practice two-thirds of the final nitrogen in 2-three instances within the standing crop after irrigation in the evening at appropriate moisture.

Weeds Control:

    Suitable land training is a critical component in controlling weeds. For proper weed control, Gesapax combi (80 WP) may be applied @ 1.Four kg in keeping with an acre in medium textured soils and 1.8 kg per acre in heavy soils in 100 to 120 liters of water. The weedicide has to be used with the recommendation of technical experts.

Irrigation:

    It's essential to attend to the irrigation requirements of sugarcane, in particular in the summer months. Farmers should plan their acreage to be planted under cane crops according to the to-be-had water at their farm. Keep in mind that each subject should get at least 16 to twenty irrigations in the course of the crop year adjusting the irrigation agenda consistent with rainfall in summer.

Diseases Control:

• For controlling sugarcane illnesses, use wholesome seeds that are ailment-unfastened and ideally plant ailment-resistant varieties. Treat the root with fungicide/s before planting. The diseased vegetation from the sphere needs to be removed and both buried or burnt. Seed can be handled with hot water at 520 C for 30 minutes.
• Warmth therapy is becoming extra common at seed-production centers to rid seeds of ratoon stunting disorder, grassy shoot, and leaf scale. This treatment includes submerging the cane setts in water heated to 520 C for two hours. Inside the hot air treatment or the moist hot air treatment, entire cane stalks are handled at 540 C for eight and 4 hours, respectively. The warmest air remedy is desired, however, because the new air treatment injures the buds, reducing germination in the long run. When planting a brand new crop, it's miles vital to apply seed from samples of the pleasant patches of cane crop, free of disease and bug pests. Disorder-unfastened, the properly-nice seed will increase yield by 10-15%.

Harvesting:

• Prevent irrigation 25 to 30 days before the harvest of the crop and no longer leave the harvested crop for lengthy within the area. In case it needs to be saved for a prolonged period, it should be protected from the trash. One-of-a-kind types planted may be harvested in step with their maturity. Harvesting of early maturing types can be started throughout November, mid-season varieties in December, and the late maturing sorts at some stage in January. The crop harvested at some point in February-March gives an accurate ratoon crop.
• Harvesting is achieved while the crop has matured and ripened. Early sorts and ratoon crops are the first to be harvested. While the stem is close to the surface, great vigilance is needed to reduce most of the stem, which is treasured each for its weight and sugar content material. The harvested cane must be immediately hauled to the mill otherwise weight and sucrose losses may occur. For this purpose, delivery needs to be arranged earlier.
  

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