EVALUATION OF ELITE SUGARCANE CLONES FOR YIELD AND QUALITY ATTRIBUTES UNDER SEMI ARID CONDITIONS

Abstract

The trial on collative performance of various sugarcane varieties was conducted at Sugarcane Research station, Khanpur during the year 2012-13 under the semi arid conditions of southern Punjab. The varieties included in the trial were S2006SP.30, S2006US.272, S2006US.321, S2006US.640, S2006US.641, S2005US.54, S2003US.718 and HSF.240. The results elucidate that the new promising Sugarcane Variety S2006US.272 with average germination (45.42%), best tillering (2.55 per plant), comparable hundred cane weight (99.33 kg) and stand (104.82 thousand/ha),maximum cane yield (104.07 t/ha) and better CCS (12.28%) excelled the tested genomes in sugar production (12.77 t/ha). It was closely followed by the check variety HSF.240. Hence the studies predict that the new variety S2006US.272 with 11.72 and 13.51 % more cane and sugar yield respectively over control is capable of replacing the check variety. A wide scale testing of the promising variety in different agro ecological zones is, however, invited for regional adoptability.