Development of Transgenic Sugarcane for Insect Resistance

Sugarcane is an economically important crop across the world. Demand for sugar and sugarcane by-products increases in both domestic and industrial sectors daily. In order to meet this demand, sustainable sugarcane yield improvement is inevitable. Yield loss in sugarcane due to insect pests ranges from 10 to 30%. Despite application of insecticides, pesticides, other chemicals, and different integrated pest management (IPM) techniques, scope for improvement remains. With genetic engineering, considerable success has been achieved in sugarcane trait improvement. To this end, this chapter focuses on development of transgenic sugarcane for disease and pest resistance.