Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

DETERIORATION IN SUGARCANE DUE TO WILT DISEASE

Sanjeev Kumar, Gireesh Chand, Devendra Mandal1, Anand Kumar and Sunil Kumar3

Abstract

Wilt disease of sugarcane produced adverse effect on sugarcane and its juice causing considerable losses both in quantitative and qualitative parameters. However, the effect seems to be somewhat directly proportional to the level of resistance of cane varieties. The disease caused a reduction in sett germinability (40.2-50.1%), number of millable cane (39.9-50.9%), number of tillers (40.0-49.0%), cane yield (45.2-51.2%), juice content (42.8-59.2%), moisture content in cane (49.6-58.4%), leaf (41.3-51.4%) and juice (10.0-14.9%), protein content in leaf (19.9-23.9%) and juice (18.8-34.5%). chlorophyll ‘a’ (32.1 - 42.4%), ‘b’ (24.4 - 44.9%) and ‘a+b’ (28.7 - 40.2%), pol (40.2-59.0%), brix (31.4-44.8%), purity (12.9-25.7%) and commercial cane sugar (44.5-66.0%). However, contents of reducing sugars and gum were increased in cane juice by 35.7-60.3 and 18.5-21.4 percent, respectively due to wilt infection.