Governance and Management of Technical Institutions (ePub)

Sugarcane is long duration crop and, passing through unexpected climate changes of all the seasons which eventually have made our tropical sugarcane environment pre-disposed to abiotic stresses that affect sugarcane cane yield abysmally. Farmers cultivating sugarcane are facing multiple problems. Water is one of the major constraints and it is affecting the productivity and profitability of sugarcane growers and millers. So, unless sugarcane farmers are provided with options of high yields with much less water, India will find it difficult to meet its growing demand for sugar. Similarly flooding reduces shoot and root growth, dry matter production and total crop yield and cane yield losses depend upon the duration of waterlogging, stage of crop growth and management practices before, during and after waterlogging. In tropical climates, excess of radiation and high temperatures are often the most limiting factors affecting plant growth and final crop yield. In crop improvement perspective, effective identification of stress resistance traits, characterization of their genetic complexity and identification of genes in a wide array of both wild and cultivated genotypes are the important steps in breeding process. Though both the sugarcane and cotton crops show higher tolerance to abiotic stresses than the other major agricultural crops, however, extreme environmental conditions, such as drought and high temperature have an adverse effect on growth, productivity of both the crops, juice quality of sugarcane and fiber quality of cotton respectively. When a plant is subjected to abiotic stress, variety of genes are turned on, leading to increased levels of several proteins and metabolites, a number of which can be responsible for conferring a particular degree of protection to those stresses. This chapter gives an insight to sugarcane and cotton plants' responses to various abiotic stresses, as well as the physiological and molecularinterventions for developing climate-smart commercial varieties, and agronomical interventions for sustaining the crop yield under changing climate.