A Review on Red Rot: The “Cancer” of Sugarcane

Saccharum spp. (Sugarcane) is an important cash crop cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. It is valuable mainly because of its ability to store high concentrations of sucrose, or sugar, in the stem and more recently for the production of ethanol, which is an important renewable biofuel source [1,2]. Globally, sugarcane is an important source of commercial sugar accounting for almost twothirds of world sugar production [1]. Brazil is the largest sugarcane producer, contributing with 40% of the world production, followed by India, China, Thailand, Pakistan, Mexico, Philippines, United States, Australia and Argentina [3]. The list of top ten sugarcane producing countries with their estimated sugarcane production in the year 2011 is listed in Table 1.