The Fusarium disease that continues to decimate a large quantity of sugar cane crops in the north has highly impacted the industry because once the cane is infected, it severely degrades its quality. ASR BSI says the industry needs to replant new cane stock and new strains but when we asked Mai about this today he says that will not solve the problem. He explained that they must first get control of the spread of Fusarium.
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"There is no single bullet that will correct the situation right now the ministry of Agriculture that deals with animal and plant health we are looking at the plant health and the agronomic aspect of sugarcane. And it is an integrated approach one is first to control the fusarium, control the stem bora, control the fracopa control the mealy bug right now and look for at the same time look at varieties that are resistant to fusarium. Fusarium is not new to certain countries that produce cane to us it is new as a disease in sugar cane but in India it exists in Brazil it exists and so these countries have applied an integrated approach where they control it using fungicides, biological control, cultural practices and resistant varieties. So resistant varieties are a part of integrated control systems."
