UPSC 2020: With reference to the current trends in the cultivation of sugarcane in India, consider the following statements: 1. A substantial saving in seed material is made when ‘bud chip settlings’ are raised in a nursery and transplanted in the main field. 2. When direct planting of setts is done, the germination percentage is better with single-budded setts as compared to setts with many buds. 3. If bad weather conditions prevail when setts are directly planted, single-budded setts have better survival as compared to large setts. 4. Sugarcane can be cultivated using settlings prepared from tissue culture. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

Bud-chip technology raises single-eye seedlings in a nursery, saving ~75–90 % of cane seed material compared with direct three-bud setts (statement 1 true). ([agritech.tnau.ac.in](https://www.agritech.tnau.ac.in/expert_system/sugar/ssi.html?utm_source=openai)) Directly planted multi-bud setts generally give higher and more reliable germination and field survival than single-bud setts, especially under adverse weather, so statements 2 and 3 are false. ([epubs.icar.org.in](https://epubs.icar.org.in/index.php/AAR/article/view/61916?utm_source=openai)) Sugarcane is routinely propagated through tissue-culture plantlets, and these plantlets are further multiplied into settlings for commercial fields, making statement 4 true. ([vsisugar.com](https://www.vsisugar.com/tissue_culture/micro_propagation.php?utm_source=openai)) Hence only statements 1 and 4 are correct.