Grassy shoot of sugarcane in India: Impact to cane cultivation, diagnostics and sustainable disease management

Grassy shoot of sugarcane associated with sugarcane grassy shoot phytoplasma is a serious disease in India and many other countries in the Asian region. The disease causes severe losses to cane production and productivity in India, where it is also associated with low ratoon productivity. None of the varieties under cultivation or parents in breeding blocks is resistant to the disease. Hence the disease must be controlled through various management strategies. Heat treatment offers partial inactivation of the phytoplasmas in the planting materials, hence healthy seed nurseries established through meristem culture combined with molecular detection is found to be the viable solution to effectively manage the disease.