• The earliest symptoms are small, elongated yellowish spots that are visible on both leaf surfaces.
• The spots increase in length, turn brown to orange-brown or red-brown in color, which coalesced and formed large, irregular necrotic areas, thus it shows rusty appearance of leaf.
• This eventually resulted in premature death of the leaves.

Yellow spots on leaf

• Uredinia are elongate, reddish-brown, with capitate, hyaline to light brown paraphyses.
• Urediniospores are thick-walled, orange-brown, obovoid, measuring 26-34 x 16-20 µm. The urediniospore surface is echinulate with 4-5 equatorial pores.
• Teliospores are dark brown and measure 30-43 x 17-23 µm, clavate, two-celled and slightly constricted at the septum.

Management strategies

Cultural method

• The best means of control for sugarcane rust is to grow resistant varieties Use resistant varieties like Co 91010 (Dhanush), Co 87025 (Kalyani)
• Affected leaves should be remove and burn immediately
• Sugarcane grown in fields receiving recent applications of mill mud is typically very prone to rust

• Spray Tridemorph 1.0 litres or Mancozeb 2.0 kg/ha.
• Use dithane M 45 @ 2 g/lit for one spraying.
• Application of triazole or strobilurin or pyraclostrobin fungicide @ 3 g/ lit of water.