Micropropagation for multiplication of disease-free and genetically uniform sugarcane plantlets

Sugarcane holds a strategic position in world agriculture, and is now considered as the major renewable energy crop; in fact, half of the Brazil’s sugarcane is utilized for the production of the renewable green fuel, ethanol. Sustained production and supply of quality seed is an important factor for the stability of agricultural production, since it is the most important basic input and is solely responsible for increasing the crop production by 15%–20%. The sustained high production of sugar per unit area depends primarily on continuous supply of adequate quantity of good-quality seed cane which has to be genetically pure, free from diseases and pests, and with no nutritional disorders. This can only be achieved by applying tissue culture techniques, since the raised plants are free from infections and the original vigor of the newly bred variety is maintained. Micropropagation is a powerful tool, which represents “the production of multiple plantlets from somatic explant of a single plant/plants of a single genotype using in vitro culture of the explant.” The micropropagation technique is well recognized in sugarcane and has offered a thousandfold rate of multiplication; presently it is one of the quickest available methods for seed production which provides a rapid technique of generating healthy seed of new varieties. The technology is not only economically viable but profitable as well.