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The Indian Sugar & Bio-Energy Manufacturers Association and ICAR-Indian Sugarcane Research Institute signed an MoU on 13 August 2026.
They will set up an Advanced Centre for Quality Sugarcane Seed Production at the ICAR-ISRI campus in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
The project costs Rs 80 crore, shared equally at Rs 40 crore by each partner.
The centre will produce disease-free, genetically pure and high-yielding sugarcane planting material for mills in the subtropical region.
It will carry facilities for nursery raising, disease indexing, hardening, multiplication, storage and distribution, with digital traceability of seed lots.
Sugarcane is propagated vegetatively - a piece of stalk with buds, called a sett, is planted rather than a true seed. Because the planting material is a clone of the parent plant, any systemic disease in the mother crop travels straight into the next one, and yields decline over successive plantings as pathogens accumulate. That is why quality seed cane is produced through a controlled chain: mother plants are tested for pathogens (disease indexing), tissue-cultured or heat-treated material is multiplied in nurseries, hardened, and only then distributed. Disease indexing is the laboratory and field testing step that detects pathogens before the material is multiplied.
Simple Analogy: Planting unindexed seed cane is like making photocopies of a photocopy - every defect in the original is reproduced, and the copies get worse each round.
Apex body for coordinating, guiding and managing agricultural research and education in India; functions under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare
Research on sugarcane agronomy, breeding, crop protection and improvement for the subtropical belt
Varietal development for sugarcane, the source of the 'Co' series of varieties grown across India
The minimum price mills must pay for cane, fixed by the Central Government on the recommendation of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices; several states additionally announce a State Advised Price
Sugarcane juice and B-heavy and C-heavy molasses are approved feedstocks, linking sugar policy to energy policy
India's seed quality system runs through state seed certification agencies and the Central Seed Certification Board, with certified, foundation and breeder seed forming the multiplication chain
GS Paper III > Agriculture - cropping patterns, agricultural research institutions, food processing and related industries
General Awareness > Agriculture and research institutions
General Awareness > Agriculture and allied sector current affairs
The Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane is approved by the
Answer: Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs
With reference to the current trends in the cultivation of sugarcane in India, consider the following statements: 1. A substantial saving in seed material is made when 'bud chip settlings' are raised in a nursery and transplanted in the main field. 2. When direct planting of setts is done, the germination percentage is better with single-budded setts as compared to setts with many buds. 3. If bad weather conditions prevail when setts are directly planted, single-budded setts have better survival as compared to large setts. 4. Sugarcane can be cultivated using settlings prepared from tissue culture. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: 1 and 4 only
Laboratory and field testing of planting material to detect pathogens before it is multiplied
A cut piece of sugarcane stalk bearing buds, used as planting material
Gradually acclimatising nursery-raised plantlets to field conditions before transplanting
The percentage of sugar extracted from a given weight of cane crushed