The ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute (ICAR-SBI) in Coimbatore has three new sugarcane varieties in the final stage of clearance, each bred to resist red rot and smut, the two fungal diseases that do most damage to India's cane. Director Dr P. Govindaraj said the varieties await sign-off from the Central Variety Release Committee, with Gazette notification expected later in 2026.

Each is designed for a region rather than for national use: Co 20016, also called Karan 20, is an early-maturing type for the Northwest Zone — Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and western Uttar Pradesh — combining high cane yield, adaptability and red rot resistance; Co 18003 is a mid-late variety for the Peninsular Zone from Tamil Nadu to Madhya Pradesh, pitched as an upgrade on the widely grown Co 86032 with better juice quality; and Co 09004 targets the East Coast Zone of coastal Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha with resistance to both red rot and smut and higher yield and juice quality.

Red rot, caused by Colletotrichum falcatum, spreads through infected seed cane, can wipe out sections of a field and has no effective chemical cure once established, especially in ratoon crops; smut, caused by Sporisorium scitamineum, throws a whip-like black growth from the cane top and cuts both tonnage and sugar. Resistant varieties, not fungicides, have long been India's main defence, and outbreaks have historically forced whole regions to abandon a popular variety within a few seasons once resistance broke down — which is why zone-specific varieties spread the risk.

All three came from conventional crossing and staged multi-location trials, not gene editing; the institute's pipeline holds roughly 1,850 clones in early evaluation, 350 in advanced trials and 70 in multi-location trials run with the All India Coordinated Research Project on Sugarcane, state schemes and millers' associations — a system in which a variety can take years from first cross to notification.

India is the world's second-largest sugarcane producer after Brazil, and ICAR-SBI's lines and disease-resistance germplasm are used as parents by breeding programmes in Africa and Southeast Asia. Commercial seed cane typically follows notification by one or two seasons while breeder and foundation seed are multiplied; better juice quality also pays farmers directly, since mills price cane partly on recoverable sugar.

Source: Global Agriculture