Cane yield attributes and heritability of juice quality characters in sugarcane under moisture deficit conditions

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Development of drought tolerant sugarcane varieties for cultivation in drought prone ecologies of the Nigeria savannas is prerequisite to attain self-sufficiency in sugar production in Nigeria. To this end, bi-parental progenies from four sugarcane crosses involving two drought tolerant and two moderately drought susceptible clones were assessed along with their parents for their drought tolerance capacity using three moisture regimes — well watered, moderate and prolonged drought stress respectively. Almost all the traits investigated in the genotypes remained unaffected by moderate drought stress except cane yield which was reduced by 2–35% in the parents and by 5% in one cross. Prolonged drought stress reduced cane yield by 6–21% in the parents and by 13–21% in the crosses. Differences for juice quality attributes (except refractometer brix and % fibre) were significant under prolonged drought stress. Both additive (δ2 A) and dominance (δ2D) genetic variance estimates differed significantly for juice quality attributes but estimates obtained for δ2D were larger in magnitude than δ2 A indicating the usefulness of specific crosses in breeding for drought tolerance. Progenies from drought tolerant parents exhibited positive heterosis over mid-parent values for stalk length and cane yield under moderate drought stress condition confirming the presence of non-additive gene action for these traits in the populations. Heterosis over the better parent were, however, negligible or negative for most of the characters.