Can sugarcane cope with increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration?

Abstract

Climate change is the one of the most emerging problem of today’s world. It is the most potent threat to the existence of mankind. These sudden abrupt changes in the climate are affecting all the crops to a great extent. High concentrations of CO2 are one of the leading reasons contributing to climate change due to the increasing level of green-house gases. The elevation in CO2 level is hampering crop production and productivity of different crops by causing effect on different physiological attributes. Unlike other crops, in sugarcane, several beneficial effects have been detected such as escalation in biomass, photosynthesis, leaf area, stalk juice volume, leaf dry weight and stem dry weight under such condition. Sugarcane crop is known to be one among those crops that is able to cope up with the increasing level of CO2 due to four natural endowments it possesses. Very low carbon dioxide compensation point and unique property of sequestering carbon in form of phytolith or planstone is some of the important natural endowment with respect to the rising CO2 concentration in atmosphere. Here, we have discussed the influence of atmospheric rising CO2 concentration on sugarcane crop.