What is the IISR–SBI division of labour in Indian sugarcane research?

India's sugarcane research is split along the agro-climatic line: ICAR-SBI (Sugarcane Breeding Institute), Coimbatore, is the national basic-breeding institute — it maintains the sugarcane germplasm collection, operates the hybridisation gardens at Coimbatore and the Agali / Marianad high-altitude flowering stations, and originates the famous 'Co' (Co-Coimbatore) parent-clone series from which almost every modern Indian sugarcane variety is descended. ICAR-IISR, Lucknow is the nodal applied-breeding and agronomy institute for the subtropical belt — it develops subtropical-adapted selections and releases under the CoLk (Co-Lucknow) series, works with UPCSR Shahjahanpur on the CoS (Co-Shahjahanpur) series and with the Seorahi station on the CoSe (Co-Seorahi) series, and develops the subtropical sugarcane agronomy package (planting methods, nutrient management, ratoon management, intercropping, water management, mechanisation). The two institutes jointly operate the AICRP on Sugarcane coordinated-trial network across subtropical and tropical centres and jointly release varieties nationally.

What is IISR's research mandate?

IISR's mandate covers basic, strategic and applied research on sugarcane for the subtropical zone: (a) crop improvement — development of subtropical sugarcane varieties (CoLk series), red-rot and wilt resistant breeding, early-maturing high-sucrose selections, biotic and abiotic stress tolerance; (b) crop production — trench planting, paired-row planting, nutrient management (integrated nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, micronutrients), water management (drip irrigation, surface irrigation, drainage of waterlogged tracts), ratoon management, intercropping and sugarcane-based cropping systems; (c) crop protection — integrated pest management for early shoot borer (Chilo infuscatellus), top borer (Scirpophaga excerptalis), stalk borer, pyrilla (Pyrilla perpusilla), scale insects, woolly aphid, and management of red rot (Colletotrichum falcatum), smut, wilt and grassy shoot disease; (d) plant physiology and biochemistry — sucrose accumulation, drought and waterlogging tolerance physiology, flowering and sucrose-partitioning; (e) agricultural engineering — mechanised planters, cutter-planters, trash choppers, inter-row rotavators, mechanised harvesting adaptation; (f) sugarcane-based socio-economics and farming system studies; (g) technology transfer and training through its Krishi Vigyan Kendra and the IISR Regional Centre at Motipur, Bihar.

Where is IISR located and what are its regional stations?

IISR headquarters is a dedicated ICAR campus at Dilkusha, Lucknow 226002, Uttar Pradesh — on the historic Dilkusha estate on the Gomti river. IISR operates a Regional Centre at Motipur, Muzaffarpur district, Bihar, which addresses the calcareous-soil north-Bihar sugarcane tract and its distinctive agronomic and pest problems. The institute also hosts an on-campus Krishi Vigyan Kendra (IISR-KVK) that extends IISR's packages to farmers of Lucknow and adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh. As the subtropical lead centre of the AICRP on Sugarcane, IISR coordinates a national network of AICRP-Sugarcane centres across State Agricultural Universities and ICAR institutes in Uttar Pradesh (UPCSR Shahjahanpur, Seorahi), Bihar (Pusa — RAU Bihar), Haryana (CCS HAU Karnal / Uchani), Punjab (PAU Kapurthala), Uttarakhand (GBPUAT Pantnagar) and MP (JNKVV Powarkheda), while SBI Coimbatore coordinates the tropical centres.

What are IISR's major sugarcane variety releases?

Under the AICRP on Sugarcane coordinated-trial system, IISR and its partner subtropical centres have released many landmark sugarcane varieties: (a) the CoLk (Co-Lucknow) series developed by IISR Lucknow — including CoLk 94184 ('Birendra'), CoLk 7701, CoLk 7901, CoLk 8102, CoLk 9709, CoLk 09204, CoLk 14201 and more; (b) the CoS (Co-Shahjahanpur) series developed with the Uttar Pradesh Council of Sugarcane Research (UPCSR) Shahjahanpur — CoS 767, CoS 7918, CoS 8436, CoS 95255, CoS 08279, CoS 13235; (c) the CoSe (Co-Seorahi) series from the Seorahi substation of UPCSR. Separately, the SBI Coimbatore 'Co' series (bred at Coimbatore but notified for the subtropical zone after AICRP evaluation) delivered Co 0238 ('Karan 4') — the single most widely grown subtropical sugarcane variety of the 2010s, which transformed Uttar Pradesh sugar recovery from ~9% to ~11.5% in a decade before succumbing to red-rot in several tracts after 2020. IISR's current breeding priority is red-rot and wilt resistant successors to Co 0238 — CoLk 14201, CoSe 11453, Co 15023 ('Karan 15') and Co 15027 are among the varieties being scaled as the post-Co-0238 slate.

What is the Co 0238 red-rot story and why is IISR central to the response?

Co 0238, bred at ICAR-SBI Coimbatore in the 2000s and notified for the subtropical zone (AICRP identification 'Karan 4'), became the dominant sugarcane variety of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar through the 2010s. It drove UP's sugarcane productivity to historic highs and lifted sugar recovery to above 11% — unprecedented for the subtropics. From around 2020, however, red-rot (Colletotrichum falcatum) breakdown became widespread across the UP cane belt, with Co 0238 — grown as a near-monoculture in many districts — showing severe susceptibility to new red-rot pathotypes. IISR's response has been three-pronged: (a) accelerated release and seed multiplication of red-rot resistant successors — CoLk 14201, CoLk 15466, CoSe 11453, Co 15023, Co 15027; (b) a varietal-diversification advisory to UP sugar mills and state cane development departments, breaking the Co 0238 monoculture into a basket of three to four varieties per mill zone; (c) seed-health protocols (hot water treatment, moist hot air treatment, tissue-culture seed, three-tier seed village multiplication) and integrated red-rot management advisories distributed through the Sugarcane Development Departments, sugar mill cane-development wings and the IISR website.

What is IISR's role in the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme?

The Government of India's Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme has moved progressively from 5% blending (E5) to 10% (E10 — achieved in June 2022, five months ahead of the November 2022 target) to the current E20 (20% ethanol blending) target that the Union Government has advanced to 2025-26. Sugarcane is the dominant feedstock: ethanol can be produced from (i) C-heavy molasses (traditional by-product of sugar manufacture), (ii) B-heavy molasses (diverted earlier in the crystallisation, giving more ethanol at some cost to sugar), (iii) sugarcane juice itself (direct ethanol route, which maximises ethanol at the full cost of sugar) and (iv) damaged food grains. IISR's role in the EBP architecture is on the feedstock side — breeding and agronomy for high-biomass, high-sucrose and 'energy cane' selections suitable for juice-based and B-heavy routes; agronomy packages for the extended crushing season that EBP creates (longer cane availability requires better ratoon management and staggered planting); and farmer-extension on cane-variety choice and planting calendar to match mill feedstock planning. IISR works closely with Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI) Pune and sugar mill industry associations on the industrial side.

What is the trench-planting method IISR promotes, and why?

The IISR trench-planting method is a soil-and-water conserving planting system in which sugarcane setts are placed in 20–30 cm deep trenches spaced 90–120 cm apart (sometimes paired at 30/150 cm as the paired-row trench) rather than on the flat land. The benefits documented by IISR across the subtropical belt are: (a) 20–30% higher cane yield compared to flat planting through better germination, tillering and lodging resistance; (b) much better water-use efficiency, since irrigation water flows down the trench and conserves soil moisture, enabling drip or furrow irrigation at lower water volumes; (c) feasibility of intercropping in the broad inter-row space during the first 90–120 days — IISR has standardised sugarcane + wheat, sugarcane + mustard, sugarcane + lentil, sugarcane + chickpea, sugarcane + potato and sugarcane + onion intercropping systems; (d) better integration with trash mulching and in-situ trash composting after harvest. Trench planting plus mechanised cutter-planters is the IISR-recommended default for commercial subtropical sugarcane under medium-input conditions, and is heavily promoted through the subtropical Sugarcane Development Departments and sugar mill cane-development wings.

How does IISR's work connect to NFSM, FRP, sugar mills and the wider sugarcane ecosystem?

IISR is the R&D backbone of the subtropical sugarcane economy. The varietal pipeline (CoLk, CoS, CoSe plus the notified Co varieties from SBI Coimbatore) feeds the three-tier seed multiplication system run by state Sugarcane Development Departments and private / cooperative sugar mill cane-development wings. The Fair & Remunerative Price (FRP) notified annually by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) — plus the State Advised Price (SAP) in UP, Punjab and Haryana — governs farmer payment, with sugar mills bound to pay within 14 days of cane supply. The Sugarcane (Control) Order 1966 and the Sugar Development Fund (SDF) Act 1982 provide the regulatory and financing backbone. The Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme (see Q7 above) now provides a parallel revenue stream for sugar mills through B-heavy molasses and sugarcane juice diversion to ethanol, with the Union Government notifying remunerative ethanol prices for each feedstock route. IISR interfaces with: ICAR-SBI Coimbatore on breeding; Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI) Pune on milling and ethanol technology; UPCSR Shahjahanpur on UP cane varieties; state Sugarcane Development Departments on seed multiplication and farmer extension; sugar mill cane-development wings on mill-zone variety planning; and the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution (which administers the sugar sector) on the sugar-ethanol balance.

IISR Lucknow — ICAR–Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Dilkusha, Lucknow 226002: India's Nodal Subtropical Sugarcane R&D Institute, Lead Centre of the AICRP on Sugarcane (Jointly with SBI Coimbatore), Home of the CoLk / CoS / CoSe Varieties, the Trench-Planting Package and the Ratoon-Management Agronomy that Underpins the Co 0238 Era and the Ethanol-Blended Petrol (EBP) Supply Chain

The ICAR–Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research (IISR), headquartered at Dilkusha, Lucknow 226002, Uttar Pradesh, is the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)'s nodal institute for research on subtropical sugarcane— sugarcane grown in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and parts of Madhya Pradesh, where frost, waterlogging, red-rot epidemic cycles and a short effective growing window set the subtropical crop apart from the long 12 – 18 month tropical sugarcane of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. India is the world's largest sugarcane producer, and roughly 55 – 60% of the national crop comes from the subtropical belt that IISR serves — making IISR's varietal pipeline, planting-method agronomy and red-rot management advisories critical infrastructure for the Indian sugar sector and the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme.

Founded 16 February 1952 — the subtropical sugarcane remit

ICAR established IISR on 16 February 1952at Dilkusha, Lucknow, specifically to fill the subtropical gap in Indian sugarcane R&D. The Sugarcane Breeding Institute (SBI) at Coimbatore — originally the Imperial Sugarcane Breeding Station set up in 1912 — had already created the famous Co (Co-Coimbatore) interspecific-hybrid parent-clone series using theSaccharum officinarum × S. spontaneum hybridisation that is the foundation of all modern commercial sugarcane worldwide. But subtropical India — with its colder winters, waterlogged / calcareous soils, red-rot-prone climate and a shorter sucrose-building window — needed a dedicated applied-breeding and agronomy institute of its own. IISR Lucknow was set up for exactly that purpose, and became ICAR's subtropical twin to SBI Coimbatore.

Mandate and research divisions

IISR's mandate spans basic, strategic and applied research on sugarcane for the subtropical zone. Its research divisions are:

Crop Improvement: development of subtropical sugarcane varieties under the CoLk (Co-Lucknow) series; collaborative breeding with UPCSR Shahjahanpur for CoS (Co-Shahjahanpur) and with the Seorahi substation for CoSe (Co-Seorahi); red-rot and wilt resistance breeding; early-maturing high-sucrose selections; biotic and abiotic stress tolerance; molecular breeding and marker-assisted selection.
Crop Production: trench planting, paired-row planting, nutrient management (integrated NPK, sulphur and micronutrients), water management (drip, surface, drainage of waterlogged tracts), ratoon management, intercropping, trash mulching and in-situ trash composting.
Crop Protection: integrated pest management for early shoot borer (Chilo infuscatellus), top borer (Scirpophaga excerptalis), stalk borer, pyrilla (Pyrilla perpusilla), scale insects, woolly aphid; integrated disease management for red rot (Colletotrichum falcatum), smut, wilt and grassy shoot disease; biocontrol — rearing and release of Trichogramma chilonis for early shoot borer, Epiricania melanoleuca for pyrilla.
Plant Physiology and Biochemistry: sucrose accumulation, drought and waterlogging tolerance physiology, flowering and sucrose-partitioning studies that feed back into breeding.
Agricultural Engineering: mechanised cutter-planters, inter-row rotavators, trash choppers / shredders, drip-fertigation systems, mechanised harvesting adaptation.
Social Sciences: sugarcane-based cropping systems economics, farmer adoption studies, mill-zone variety-mix planning and ethanol-feedstock socio-economics.
IISR Krishi Vigyan Kendra: on-campus KVK for Lucknow district extension — see our Krishi Vigyan Kendras directory for the wider KVK network.

Location and regional stations

Headquarters: Dilkusha, Rae Bareli Road, Lucknow 226002, Uttar Pradesh — the historic Dilkusha estate on the Gomti river.
IISR Regional Centre, Motipur, Bihar: at Motipur, Muzaffarpur district, Bihar, addressing the calcareous-soil north-Bihar sugarcane tract and its distinctive agronomic and pest problems — a key extension anchor for the Bihar cane economy.
AICRP-Sugarcane subtropical centres (IISR coordinated):Uttar Pradesh Council of Sugarcane Research (UPCSR), Shahjahanpur; Seorahi substation of UPCSR; Rajendra Agricultural University (RAU) Pusa, Bihar; CCS Haryana Agricultural University (HAU), Uchani / Karnal; Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) Kapurthala; G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology (GBPUAT) Pantnagar; Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya (JNKVV) Powarkheda.
AICRP-Sugarcane tropical centres (SBI Coimbatore coordinated): Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI) Pune, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth (MPKV) Padegaon, University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) Mandya, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) Cuddalore, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU) Anakapalle.

Varietal lineage — CoLk, CoS, CoSe and the national Co varieties

Under the AICRP on Sugarcane coordinated-trial system, IISR, SBI Coimbatore and the AICRP partner centres have released hundreds of improved sugarcane varieties over the decades. The subtropical workhorses include:

CoLk (Co-Lucknow) series — bred by IISR Lucknow:CoLk 7701, CoLk 7901, CoLk 8102, CoLk 94184 ("Birendra"), CoLk 9709, CoLk 09204, CoLk 14201 and CoLk 15466 among others — the indigenous IISR line for the subtropical belt.
CoS (Co-Shahjahanpur) series — jointly with UPCSR Shahjahanpur:CoS 767, CoS 7918, CoS 8436, CoS 95255, CoS 08279, CoS 13235 — a long UP lineage that has anchored the state's cane economy.
CoSe (Co-Seorahi) series — Seorahi substation of UPCSR: CoSe 92423, CoSe 95422, CoSe 11453 — tuned to eastern-UP and the Terai belt.
Co (Co-Coimbatore) varieties notified for the subtropical zone: bred by SBI Coimbatore but evaluated and notified for subtropical cultivation under the AICRP system — most notably Co 0238 ("Karan 4"), which became the dominant subtropical variety through the 2010s and drove UP sugar recovery past 11%; and the successor slate — Co 15023 ("Karan 15"), Co 15027, Co 11015 ("Karan 2"), Co 13035 — being scaled for red-rot resilience.

The definitive, current list of notified varieties is maintained on iisr.icar.gov.in and on the AICRP-Sugarcane annual report.

The Co 0238 era and the post-2020 red-rot response

Co 0238, bred at ICAR-SBI Coimbatore and notified under AICRP identification "Karan 4", became the single most widely grown subtropical sugarcane variety through the 2010s. It drove the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar cane belt to historic productivity highs, and lifted UP sugar recovery from ~9% to above 11.5% — unprecedented for the subtropics. By 2019-20, Co 0238 covered the overwhelming majority of UP cane area.

From around 2020, however, red rot (Colletotrichum falcatum)— the historic "cancer of sugarcane" of the subtropics — broke through on Co 0238 across large tracts of UP. New pathotypes, combined with near-monoculture planting and the build-up of inoculum in ratoon crops, made the breakdown systemic. IISR's response has been three-pronged:

Red-rot resistant successors: accelerated AICRP evaluation, release and seed multiplication of CoLk 14201, CoLk 15466, CoSe 11453, Co 15023, Co 15027 — the post-Co-0238 subtropical slate.
Varietal diversification advisories: working with state Sugarcane Development Departments and sugar mill cane-development wings to break the Co 0238 monoculture into a basket of three to four varieties per mill zone, with early-mid-late maturity staggering.
Seed-health protocols:hot water treatment (54 °C for 2 hours), moist hot air treatment, tissue-culture mother-plant seed, three-tier seed village multiplication (breeder → foundation → certified), red-rot nursery screening and the IISR "healthy seed cane" package.

Trench planting, paired-row planting and intercropping

IISR's agronomy flagship is the trench planting system — setts placed in 20 – 30 cm deep trenches 90 – 120 cm apart (or in the paired-row configuration at 30 / 150 cm), replacing conventional flat planting. The IISR trench planting package delivers:

20 – 30% higher cane yield than flat planting through better germination, tillering and lodging resistance.
Higher water-use efficiency, since irrigation flows down the trench — ideal for drip or narrow-furrow irrigation at reduced water volumes.
Intercropping in the broad inter-row space during the first 90 – 120 days. IISR has standardised sugarcane + wheat, sugarcane + mustard, sugarcane + lentil, sugarcane + chickpea, sugarcane + potato and sugarcane + onion intercropping systems for the subtropical belt.
Trash mulching and in-situ trash composting after harvest — recycling cane trash as mulch improves soil moisture and organic carbon, replacing trash burning.

Trench planting combined with the IISR mechanised cutter-planter is the recommended default for commercial subtropical sugarcane under medium-input conditions, and is heavily promoted through state Sugarcane Development Departments and sugar mill cane-development wings.

Ratoon management

Ratoon crops— the regrowth after harvest from the stubble, taken for one or two additional cycles — account for roughly half of India's cane area, and typically yield 15 – 25% less than the plant crop. IISR has worked extensively on ratoon management packages to narrow this gap: stubble shaving at ground level, gap filling with pre-raised settlings, off-barring and earthing up, split N application, pest surveillance (particularly scale insects and woolly aphid in the ratoon), and the systematic use of ratoon-tolerant varieties. The IISRratoon-manager's calendar is widely used by sugar mill cane-development wings.

Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) and the sugar-ethanol balance

Sugarcane is India's dominant ethanol feedstock, and the Union Government's Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme has moved from E5 (5% blending) in the early 2000s to E10 (10%) achieved in June 2022 — five months ahead of the November 2022 target — to the current E20 (20%) target advanced to 2025-26. Four feedstock routes operate in parallel from sugarcane:

C-heavy molasses — the traditional by-product of complete sugar crystallisation.
B-heavy molasses — molasses diverted earlier in the crystallisation sequence, giving more ethanol at some cost to sugar.
Sugarcane juice — direct ethanol route, maximising ethanol at the full cost of sugar.
Damaged food grains — non-sugarcane, but part of the same OMC ethanol procurement.

The Union Government notifies remunerative ethanol prices for each route each year. IISR's role is on the feedstock side — breeding and agronomy for high-biomass, high-sucrose and "energy cane" selections, agronomy packages for the extended crushing season (longer cane availability requires better ratoon management and staggered planting), and farmer-extension on variety choice and planting calendar to match mill feedstock planning. IISR works closely with Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI), Puneon milling and ethanol technology, and with the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution on the sugar-ethanol balance.

Linkages with the wider Indian sugarcane ecosystem

ICAR-SBI Coimbatore (Sugarcane Breeding Institute): the tropical twin — basic breeding, germplasm, the Co parent-clone series and tropical AICRP coordination. IISR and SBI jointly run the AICRP on Sugarcane.
UPCSR Shahjahanpur:the Uttar Pradesh Council of Sugarcane Research — IISR's principal state-partner for the CoS and CoSe variety series.
Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI) Pune: industry-side R&D on milling, sugar technology and ethanol — IISR's complement on the processing side.
Crop-calendar entry — Sugarcane: twelve-month sowing, fertilization, pest-scouting and harvest operations schedule for sugarcane in India, built on IISR / SBI package of practices.
NFSM: the National Food Security Mission has a Commercial Crops component that includes sugarcane, running cluster demonstrations and seed distribution on IISR-notified varieties.
CACP and MSP page: the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices notifies the Fair & Remunerative Price (FRP) for sugarcane each year, with mills bound to pay within 14 days of supply.
APEDA and FCI: parts of the wider agricultural procurement and export infrastructure that interact with the sugar sector.
ICAR-IARI, ICAR-IIMR, ICAR-IIPR, ICAR-IIRR, ICAR-IIWBR: sister ICAR crop-sciences institutes that complement IISR within the ICAR system.
ICAR-NBPGR: National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources — custodian of the sugarcane germplasm base IISR and SBI draw on.
ICAR-ATARI and Krishi Vigyan Kendras: deliver IISR sugarcane packages at the district level, with IISR hosting its own on-campus KVK for Lucknow.

Crop calendar — Sugarcane

Twelve-month operations schedule for Indian sugarcane: spring and autumn planting, ratoon, harvest / crushing season — built on IISR / SBI package of practices.

IIMR Hyderabad

ICAR–Indian Institute of Millets Research, Hyderabad — sister ICAR crop-institute, nodal for sorghum and small millets.

IIPR Kanpur

ICAR–Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur — sister ICAR nodal institute for pulses, adjacent to the UP cane belt that IISR serves.

IIWBR Karnal

ICAR–Indian Institute of Wheat & Barley Research, Karnal — sister cereal institute; sugarcane + wheat is IISR's flagship intercropping system.

IIRR Hyderabad

ICAR–Indian Institute of Rice Research — the rice counterpart in the ICAR crop-institute system.

NFSM

National Food Security Mission — Commercial Crops component covers sugarcane, running cluster demonstrations on IISR-notified varieties.

CACP

Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices — notifies the Fair & Remunerative Price (FRP) for sugarcane each sugar year.

MSP

Minimum Support Prices for Indian crops — includes the sugarcane FRP mechanism and the UP, Punjab, Haryana State Advised Price (SAP).

NBPGR

ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources — custodian of the sugarcane germplasm base IISR and SBI draw on.

Krishi Vigyan Kendras

District-level ICAR farm-science centres delivering IISR sugarcane varieties, trench-planting agronomy and ratoon-management packages to farmers.

ATARI

Agricultural Technology Application Research Institutes — zonal ICAR centres propagating IISR sugarcane packages through the KVK network.

Universities & Research Institutes

Full directory of Indian SAUs, ICAR institutes and agricultural universities.

References

iisr.icar.gov.in — ICAR-IISR Lucknow official portal: research divisions, notified sugarcane varieties (CoLk series), AICRP on Sugarcane coordination, trench-planting and ratoon-management packages, red-rot management advisories and the IISR Krishi Vigyan Kendra calendar.
sugarcane.icar.gov.in — ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute (SBI), Coimbatore — tropical twin of IISR; germplasm, Co parent-clone series and tropical AICRP coordination.
icar.org.in — Indian Council of Agricultural Research — parent institution of IISR, and the source for the 16 February 1952 founding record.
cacp.dacnet.nic.in — Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices — Fair & Remunerative Price (FRP) notifications for sugarcane each sugar year.
dfpd.gov.in — Department of Food & Public Distribution, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution — administers the sugar sector, the Sugarcane (Control) Order 1966, the Sugar Development Fund (SDF) Act 1982 and the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme.
vsisugar.com — Vasantdada Sugar Institute, Pune — industry-side R&D on milling, sugar technology and ethanol.
FAOSTAT — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — India sugarcane area, production and yield data.
Press Information Bureau (PIB) — Government of India press releases on E10 / E20 achievement, FRP notifications, Co 0238 red-rot response and new sugarcane variety releases.

Frequently asked questions

What is ICAR-IISR Lucknow and when was it founded?: ICAR–Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research (IISR), Lucknow is India's nodal Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institute for research on subtropical sugarcane, headquartered at Dilkusha, Lucknow 226002, Uttar Pradesh. IISR was founded on 16 February 1952 under ICAR, specifically to anchor sugarcane R&D for the subtropical sugarcane belt of India — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and parts of Madhya Pradesh — where frost, waterlogging, red-rot epidemic cycles and a short effective growing window make the subtropical sugarcane challenge distinct from the long-duration tropical cane crop grown in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. IISR reports to ICAR under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, and together with ICAR–Sugarcane Breeding Institute (SBI), Coimbatore it co-leads the All India Coordinated Research Project on Sugarcane (AICRP-Sugarcane).
What is the IISR–SBI division of labour in Indian sugarcane research?: India's sugarcane research is split along the agro-climatic line: ICAR-SBI (Sugarcane Breeding Institute), Coimbatore, is the national basic-breeding institute — it maintains the sugarcane germplasm collection, operates the hybridisation gardens at Coimbatore and the Agali / Marianad high-altitude flowering stations, and originates the famous 'Co' (Co-Coimbatore) parent-clone series from which almost every modern Indian sugarcane variety is descended. ICAR-IISR, Lucknow is the nodal applied-breeding and agronomy institute for the subtropical belt — it develops subtropical-adapted selections and releases under the CoLk (Co-Lucknow) series, works with UPCSR Shahjahanpur on the CoS (Co-Shahjahanpur) series and with the Seorahi station on the CoSe (Co-Seorahi) series, and develops the subtropical sugarcane agronomy package (planting methods, nutrient management, ratoon management, intercropping, water management, mechanisation). The two institutes jointly operate the AICRP on Sugarcane coordinated-trial network across subtropical and tropical centres and jointly release varieties nationally.
What is IISR's research mandate?: IISR's mandate covers basic, strategic and applied research on sugarcane for the subtropical zone: (a) crop improvement — development of subtropical sugarcane varieties (CoLk series), red-rot and wilt resistant breeding, early-maturing high-sucrose selections, biotic and abiotic stress tolerance; (b) crop production — trench planting, paired-row planting, nutrient management (integrated nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, micronutrients), water management (drip irrigation, surface irrigation, drainage of waterlogged tracts), ratoon management, intercropping and sugarcane-based cropping systems; (c) crop protection — integrated pest management for early shoot borer (Chilo infuscatellus), top borer (Scirpophaga excerptalis), stalk borer, pyrilla (Pyrilla perpusilla), scale insects, woolly aphid, and management of red rot (Colletotrichum falcatum), smut, wilt and grassy shoot disease; (d) plant physiology and biochemistry — sucrose accumulation, drought and waterlogging tolerance physiology, flowering and sucrose-partitioning; (e) agricultural engineering — mechanised planters, cutter-planters, trash choppers, inter-row rotavators, mechanised harvesting adaptation; (f) sugarcane-based socio-economics and farming system studies; (g) technology transfer and training through its Krishi Vigyan Kendra and the IISR Regional Centre at Motipur, Bihar.
Where is IISR located and what are its regional stations?: IISR headquarters is a dedicated ICAR campus at Dilkusha, Lucknow 226002, Uttar Pradesh — on the historic Dilkusha estate on the Gomti river. IISR operates a Regional Centre at Motipur, Muzaffarpur district, Bihar, which addresses the calcareous-soil north-Bihar sugarcane tract and its distinctive agronomic and pest problems. The institute also hosts an on-campus Krishi Vigyan Kendra (IISR-KVK) that extends IISR's packages to farmers of Lucknow and adjoining districts of Uttar Pradesh. As the subtropical lead centre of the AICRP on Sugarcane, IISR coordinates a national network of AICRP-Sugarcane centres across State Agricultural Universities and ICAR institutes in Uttar Pradesh (UPCSR Shahjahanpur, Seorahi), Bihar (Pusa — RAU Bihar), Haryana (CCS HAU Karnal / Uchani), Punjab (PAU Kapurthala), Uttarakhand (GBPUAT Pantnagar) and MP (JNKVV Powarkheda), while SBI Coimbatore coordinates the tropical centres.
What are IISR's major sugarcane variety releases?: Under the AICRP on Sugarcane coordinated-trial system, IISR and its partner subtropical centres have released many landmark sugarcane varieties: (a) the CoLk (Co-Lucknow) series developed by IISR Lucknow — including CoLk 94184 ('Birendra'), CoLk 7701, CoLk 7901, CoLk 8102, CoLk 9709, CoLk 09204, CoLk 14201 and more; (b) the CoS (Co-Shahjahanpur) series developed with the Uttar Pradesh Council of Sugarcane Research (UPCSR) Shahjahanpur — CoS 767, CoS 7918, CoS 8436, CoS 95255, CoS 08279, CoS 13235; (c) the CoSe (Co-Seorahi) series from the Seorahi substation of UPCSR. Separately, the SBI Coimbatore 'Co' series (bred at Coimbatore but notified for the subtropical zone after AICRP evaluation) delivered Co 0238 ('Karan 4') — the single most widely grown subtropical sugarcane variety of the 2010s, which transformed Uttar Pradesh sugar recovery from ~9% to ~11.5% in a decade before succumbing to red-rot in several tracts after 2020. IISR's current breeding priority is red-rot and wilt resistant successors to Co 0238 — CoLk 14201, CoSe 11453, Co 15023 ('Karan 15') and Co 15027 are among the varieties being scaled as the post-Co-0238 slate.
What is the Co 0238 red-rot story and why is IISR central to the response?: Co 0238, bred at ICAR-SBI Coimbatore in the 2000s and notified for the subtropical zone (AICRP identification 'Karan 4'), became the dominant sugarcane variety of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar through the 2010s. It drove UP's sugarcane productivity to historic highs and lifted sugar recovery to above 11% — unprecedented for the subtropics. From around 2020, however, red-rot (Colletotrichum falcatum) breakdown became widespread across the UP cane belt, with Co 0238 — grown as a near-monoculture in many districts — showing severe susceptibility to new red-rot pathotypes. IISR's response has been three-pronged: (a) accelerated release and seed multiplication of red-rot resistant successors — CoLk 14201, CoLk 15466, CoSe 11453, Co 15023, Co 15027; (b) a varietal-diversification advisory to UP sugar mills and state cane development departments, breaking the Co 0238 monoculture into a basket of three to four varieties per mill zone; (c) seed-health protocols (hot water treatment, moist hot air treatment, tissue-culture seed, three-tier seed village multiplication) and integrated red-rot management advisories distributed through the Sugarcane Development Departments, sugar mill cane-development wings and the IISR website.
What is IISR's role in the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme?: The Government of India's Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme has moved progressively from 5% blending (E5) to 10% (E10 — achieved in June 2022, five months ahead of the November 2022 target) to the current E20 (20% ethanol blending) target that the Union Government has advanced to 2025-26. Sugarcane is the dominant feedstock: ethanol can be produced from (i) C-heavy molasses (traditional by-product of sugar manufacture), (ii) B-heavy molasses (diverted earlier in the crystallisation, giving more ethanol at some cost to sugar), (iii) sugarcane juice itself (direct ethanol route, which maximises ethanol at the full cost of sugar) and (iv) damaged food grains. IISR's role in the EBP architecture is on the feedstock side — breeding and agronomy for high-biomass, high-sucrose and 'energy cane' selections suitable for juice-based and B-heavy routes; agronomy packages for the extended crushing season that EBP creates (longer cane availability requires better ratoon management and staggered planting); and farmer-extension on cane-variety choice and planting calendar to match mill feedstock planning. IISR works closely with Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI) Pune and sugar mill industry associations on the industrial side.
What is the trench-planting method IISR promotes, and why?: The IISR trench-planting method is a soil-and-water conserving planting system in which sugarcane setts are placed in 20–30 cm deep trenches spaced 90–120 cm apart (sometimes paired at 30/150 cm as the paired-row trench) rather than on the flat land. The benefits documented by IISR across the subtropical belt are: (a) 20–30% higher cane yield compared to flat planting through better germination, tillering and lodging resistance; (b) much better water-use efficiency, since irrigation water flows down the trench and conserves soil moisture, enabling drip or furrow irrigation at lower water volumes; (c) feasibility of intercropping in the broad inter-row space during the first 90–120 days — IISR has standardised sugarcane + wheat, sugarcane + mustard, sugarcane + lentil, sugarcane + chickpea, sugarcane + potato and sugarcane + onion intercropping systems; (d) better integration with trash mulching and in-situ trash composting after harvest. Trench planting plus mechanised cutter-planters is the IISR-recommended default for commercial subtropical sugarcane under medium-input conditions, and is heavily promoted through the subtropical Sugarcane Development Departments and sugar mill cane-development wings.
How does IISR's work connect to NFSM, FRP, sugar mills and the wider sugarcane ecosystem?: IISR is the R&D backbone of the subtropical sugarcane economy. The varietal pipeline (CoLk, CoS, CoSe plus the notified Co varieties from SBI Coimbatore) feeds the three-tier seed multiplication system run by state Sugarcane Development Departments and private / cooperative sugar mill cane-development wings. The Fair & Remunerative Price (FRP) notified annually by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) — plus the State Advised Price (SAP) in UP, Punjab and Haryana — governs farmer payment, with sugar mills bound to pay within 14 days of cane supply. The Sugarcane (Control) Order 1966 and the Sugar Development Fund (SDF) Act 1982 provide the regulatory and financing backbone. The Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme (see Q7 above) now provides a parallel revenue stream for sugar mills through B-heavy molasses and sugarcane juice diversion to ethanol, with the Union Government notifying remunerative ethanol prices for each feedstock route. IISR interfaces with: ICAR-SBI Coimbatore on breeding; Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI) Pune on milling and ethanol technology; UPCSR Shahjahanpur on UP cane varieties; state Sugarcane Development Departments on seed multiplication and farmer extension; sugar mill cane-development wings on mill-zone variety planning; and the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution (which administers the sugar sector) on the sugar-ethanol balance.

The 16 February 1952 founding, the Dilkusha (Lucknow 226002) headquarters, the Motipur (Bihar) Regional Centre, the CoLk / CoS / CoSe varietal lineage, the Co 0238 ("Karan 4") rise and the post-2020 red-rot response, the trench-planting and ratoon-management agronomy packages, the AICRP on Sugarcane co-coordination with ICAR-SBI Coimbatore and the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP / E10 / E20) feedstock linkage above draw on publicly available material on iisr.icar.gov.in, sugarcane.icar.gov.in, icar.org.in, cacp.dacnet.nic.in, dfpd.gov.in, vsisugar.com and PIB releases. Variety release lists, red-rot pathotype classification, FRP rates and ethanol feedstock prices are periodically revised — confirm current details on iisr.icar.gov.in and the DFPD / CACP portals before planning mill-zone variety choices, breeder-seed requests or EBP feedstock planning.