A Review on Red Rot: The ?Cancer? of Sugarcane

Abstract

Sugarcane is an important agro industrial crop of the world. India being the largest consumer as well as the second largest producer of sugar, so, it requires sugarcane production on large scale. But diseases are the major concern for the sugarcane, responsible for its low yield. Among all the diseases, fungal disease named red rot of sugarcane is the most threatening disease of sugarcane, rightly called as ‘Cancer’ of sugarcane. It causes severe loss in yield and quality of the sugarcane. As the fungus Colletotrichum falcatum responsible for this disease is highly variable in nature, hence, it causes the frequent breakdown of resistant varieties. Keeping in view the seriousness of this disease, the present review summarizes the distribution, mode and source of infection, description of casual pathogen and disease management