Sustainable Sugarcane Production (PDF)

Priyanka Singh, PhD, is the Scientific Officer of the Uttar Pradesh Council of Sugarcane Research (UPCSR), Shahjahanpur, India. She has worked at the Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow, India for nine years. She has 19 years of research experience with a specialization in organophosphorus chemistry and in the area of cane quality/postharvest management of sugar losses with the help of chemicals as well as eco-friendly compounds. She has extensive experience using electrolyzed water to preserve cane quality, and is responsible for the first time that it was reported that electrolyzed water has immense potential to be used in sugar industry to preserve post harvest sucrose losses. She has synthesized and characterized 37 new organophosphorus compounds belonging to the chalcone series, of which two important chemicals (Chalcone thiosemicarbazone and Chalcone dithiocarbazate) were found to be highly fungitoxic to the sugarcane parasitic fungi Colletotricum falcatum, Fusarium oxysporum, and Curvularia pallescene. She has worked on the extraction of volatile constituents from higher plants and their biological activity against agricultural pests. She also worked on the management of postharvest formation of nonsugar and polysaccharide compounds in sugarcane and the effect of bioproducts on growth, yield, and quality of sugarcane and soil health. She has also worked on indicators of postharvest losses in sugarcane and reported that Mannitol is one of the most important indicators.

Presently she is working on varietal spectrum of sugarcane for the selection of elite sugarcane varieties so as to recommend the proper varietal balance of sugarcane varieties in Uttar Pradesh, as well as working on modulating the activities of sucrose metabolizing enzymes through bio-active silicon (orthosilicic acid) for increased cane and sugar productivity, which will benefit farmers as well as the sugar industry in remarkable way. She is also managing and