With reference to the current trends in the cultivation of sugarcane in India, consider the followin

Question

With reference to the current trends in the cultivation of sugarcane in India, consider the following statements:A substantial saving in seed material is made when bud chip settlings are raised in a nursery and transplanted in the main field.When direct planting of seeds is done, the germination percentage is better with single-budded setts as compared to setts with many buds.If bad weather conditions prevail when seeds are directly planted, single-budded seeds have better survival as compared to large setts.Sugarcane can be cultivated using settlings prepared from tissue culture.Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Accepted Answer

Sugarcane is commercially planted using setts (cuttings which can develop roots) at the rate of 6-8 tonnes per hectare, amounting to around 10 percent of the total production. This large mass of planting material creates logistical challenges in transportation and storage of seed cane. The tissue culture technique, owing to its cumbersome outfit and physical limitation, is turning out to be uneconomical.To reduce the mass and improve the quality of seed cane would be to plant excised axillary buds of canestalk, popularly known as budchips. These bud chips are less bulky, easily transportable and more economical seed material. A bud chip nursery can be raised in a mini-plot near the experimental field. Nutrients are sprayed with PGR (plant growth regulator) solution at the 3rd week. Healthy settlings were transplanted in a well-prepared field after 4-5 weeks with row spacing of 90 cm and 30 cm between the two settling (small setts). Hence statement 1 is correct.Various research and experiments show that the germination percentage of 3 bud sets is higher than the setts having more or less than three buds. The germination percentage of single bud sett is very low because of moisture loss from other cut ends. Also, if the whole can stalk is planted without giving any cut, the germination percentage remains low as only the top end will germinate. Hence statement 2 is not correct.Various researches found that large setts seeds have better survival as compared to single-budded seeds when seeds are directly planted in prevailing bad weather conditions. Hence statement 3 is not correct.Planting is the most important and labor-intensive operation in sugarcane cultivation. To rapidly produce and supply disease-free seed cane of existing commercial varieties, Tissue culture is an exciting new way which uses meristem to clone the mother plant. Cane and sugar yield of tissue culture plants are similar to conventionally propagated plants. Hence statement 4 is correct.