This New Variety of Sugarcane Can Fight Red Rot Disease Better

The Uttar Pradesh Sugarcane Research Council in Shahjahanpur and the Indian Sugarcane Research Institute in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) have created new sugarcane variety 14201 (CoLk-14201). This new variety can fight red rot disease, which is common and destructive to sugarcane crop.  

Features of this new variety 

• The variety has the power to fight red rot disease.

• The variety shows rare pest attacks. 

• Its quality is beneficial to farmers. 

• Its yield is 900-1000 quintal/hectare. 

• The cane is upright and does not slouch. 

• Jaggery is golden and of excellent quality. 

Seeds of this new variety of sugarcane will be available to farmers in this year (2021). Cooperative Sugar Mills of Gujarat are already trying to get seeds of this new variety. At present, huge quantities of these seeds are being produced through Milo.  

In 2019-20, sugarcane was grown in 1.5 lakh hectares of land in Gujarat. About 107 lakh tonnes of sugarcane was produced from this cultivation. Yield per hectare amounted to 71,000 kg with an average yield of 713 quintals per hectare. The crop suffered 20% loss due to red rot disease.  

Now, with the advent of this new variety, losses can be stopped. Incessant rains and heavy rainfall in Gujarat had flooded the fields. This led to the rapid spread of the disease to surrounding fields.  

Farmers are anticipated to increase production of sugarcane to 100 kg per hectare with the new variety.