AGRONOMIC BIOGRAPHY OF NIA-2012, A NEW HIGH YIELDING AND EARLY MATURING VARIETY OF NUCLEAR INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE (NIA), TANDOJAM

Abstract

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum × S. spontaneum hybrid) is a major cash crop of Pakistan. However, breeding elite cane varieties has been slow for this commodity because of the inapt agroclimatic conditions of the country. This study presents comparative trials of NIA-2012, a high yielding and early maturing variety against commercial checks (Thatta-10 and SPF-234), and three other promising clones. Fields trials were conducted at Nuclear Institute of Agriculture (NIA), Tandojam for two consecutive years. NIA-2012 recorded superior two years’ average cane yield of 132.78 t/ha whereas SPF-234 exhibited lowest average cane yield of 82.38 t/ha. Thatta-10 was also seen to yield poorer than most of the clones evaluated in the experiment. Moreover, NIA2012 maintained its superiority over all the entries regarding sucrose contents as well, which is the most important parameter of sugarcane crop for sugar industry. It produced highest sucrose contents of 20.04, and 19.66 % for the two seasons. Likewise, NIA-2012 out-yielded all entries regarding sugar yield, recording sugar yield of 20.08 and 19.21 t/ha for two years. Thatta-10, on the other hand, showed 12.58 and 11.92 t/ha of sugar yield. NIA-2012 can result in excellent economic returns to the farming community as well as sugar mills because of its exceptionally high cane yield and sugar contents. Additionally, it maintains its high sucrose contents from November until February which would be another edge to the farming community in prevailing sugar sector’s trends of the country. This variety, with its tremendous combination of sucrose contents and cane yield, can play vital role to serve the agricultural sector and sugar industry.