ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on diseases of sugarcane, their symptoms, pathogen characters, epidemiology, and management. The diseases covered are red rot, whip smut, sett rot or pineapple disease, wilt, rust, gummosis, red stripe and top rot, ratoon stunting, grassy shoot, and sugarcane mosaic disease. The fungus produces thin, hyaline, septate, profusely branched hyphae containing oil droplets. The fungus produces black, minute velvetty acervuli with long, rigid bristle-like, septate setae. Conidiophores are closely packed inside the acervulus, which are short, hyaline and single celled. The conidia are single celled, hyaline, falcate, granular and guttulate. The fungus is sett-borne and also persists in the soil on the diseased clumps and stubbles as chlamydospores and dormant mycelium. The primary infection is mainly from infected setts. Secondary spread in the field is through irrigation water and cultivation tools. The rain splash, air currents and dew drops also help in the spread of conidia from the diseased to healthy plants in the field.
