Develop alternative cane varieties to address red rot disease: Chouhan to ICAR

New Delhi, 30 September Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday ICAR scientists existing ‘Co 0238’ type of red rotten as the disease became sensitive to the disease asked to develop alternative sugar cane varieties.

The Indian Agricultural Research Council (ICAR) was also directed to establish a separate team for this purpose.

Chouhan said he appealed to an event here.

In an official statement, Sugarcane Variety Co 0238 has good sugar content, but said it was vulnerable to red rotten disease.

CO 0238 was released in 2009 with moderate resistance to the widespread races of the red -rotten disease, which contributed to the rapid adoption of farmers in North India.

However, this resistance began to deteriorate between 2020 and 2023, especially due to the emergence of more virus red decay patotypes and adverse weather conditions.

In addition, the minister also emphasized the importance of bio-operations while ethanol and molasses have well-established uses.

He also underlined the natural agricultural potential to help reduce fertilizer dependence.

Chouhan said that the complaints of the farmers about delayed payments were real by accepting the problems around the sugar value chain.

Sugar factories faced their own challenges, while farmers remained disadvantageous when payments are delayed, he said.

He also emphasized the shortage of agricultural labor and proposed to develop education and capacity as well as innovations in mechanization in order to make sugar cane harvest less labor intensive.

ICAR General Manager and Courage Secretary ML Jat determined four key areas that the research should discuss: Defining research priorities, determining developmental challenges to advance research, to overcome industry -related problems, to propose policy steps to support the sector.

Devendra Kumar Yadav, Deputy General Manager of Product Sciences in ICAR, announced that Sugarcane Variety Co 0238 was initially welcomed by farmers, but eventually encouraged Mono breakage.

“Although there are alternatives, it takes time to adopt new varieties. All diversity is going through three -year tests to monitor insect resistance and yield,” he said.