UF/IFAS researchers are working on a cure to stop a virus from attacking sugarcane and sorghum throughout the Everglades. More than 50 percent of all sugarcane in the U.S. is produced in the Everglades agricultural region.
The virus causes a yellow stripe down the middle of sugarcane leaves. It first appeared in Florida in 1993 and is carried by an aphid, a tiny bug that feeds by sucking sap from the plants. If the virus spreads across the state, it could infect millions of plants in the sugarcane/sorghum belt from Florida to Texas. Read More.