Genetic Studies in Advanced Sugarcane Mid-Late Clones through Yield and Quality Traits

Sugarcane varietal development is frequently aimed at increasing yield and sucrose quality. Effective crop genetic evolution requires knowledge of the numerous traits that contribute to the present diversity by genetic analysis. Keeping in view, this experiment was conducted using a randomized block design with three replications and the trial consisted of nine mid-late sugarcane genotypes. Data on cane yield and quality traits were used to estimate the genetic variability parameters, heritability, and genetic advance (GA). Analysis of variance revealed highly significant and significant differences for all studied traits. Evaluated characters exhibited different levels of variability, heritability, and genetic advance among the studied genotypes. Low to high phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) and genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) were recorded. The moderate GCV and PCV values were found particularly for Sugar Yield at harvest (18.09% and 21.64%) and Cane Yield at harvest (16.62% and 20.14%) respectively, whereas the lowest GCV and PCV (1.43% and 2.26% respectively) manifested for Purity at the 12 months stage. The highest broad sense heritability value manifested for Pol in juice at 12 months stage (%) (86.47%) followed by CCS at 12 months stage (%) (85.43%), while the lowest heritability (35.00%) revealed only for Germination % at 30 DAP. In the present study, high heritability and genetic advance as a percentage of the mean (>50) was recorded for Millable canes at harvest (000/ha) and single cane weight at harvest (kg) indicating a predominance of additive gene action for these characters. Therefore the result of this study suggests the existence of variability for cane yield and quality traits in these sugarcane genotypes, which should be exploited in future breeding.