Vol. 12, Issue 9 (2023)

Author(s):
PK Mallikarjun and Sanjay B Patil

Abstract:
Sugarcane serves as a significant source of sugar, constantly facing the pressure to enhance productivity due to rising cost of cultivation and the volatile nature of global market prices. A panel of 225 sugarcane clones of clonal-I generation were planted in an augmented design during 2022-23 at ARS, Sankeshwar, Karnataka, to study the variability in productivity and juice quality traits. The analysis of variance revealed significant effects due to genotypes and checks for most of the studied traits, while block effects were non-significant for all traits except average cane girth and sucrose per cent, indicating the homogeneity of evaluation blocks. Among the studied traits, the highest coefficient of variation was observed for commercial cane sugar yield (13.58%) and cane yield (12.11%). The PCV is greater than GCV for most of the traits under study. High heritability and genetic advance were observed for number of millable canes per plot, average single cane weight at 240 DAP, average single cane weight at 300 DAP, average single cane weight at 360 DAP, brix per cent at 240 DAP, commercial cane sugar per cent at 240 DAP, Juice extraction per cent, cane yield and commercial cane sugar yield. This observation implies that clonal selection can be highly effective in enhancing productivity traits. Consequently, these current traits can be utilized in subsequent rounds of selection and genetic improvement in sugarcane.