Abstract
Enhancement of sugar production in Sri Lanka is very important since a large amount of foreign exchange is spent on sugar importation every year. Cultivation of improved varieties developed through proven crosses involving selected parents, for desired cane and sugar yield components, is a necessity to reach the production targets in Sri Lanka. The present study focused on the evaluation of 509 sugarcane parental accessions (<em>Saccharum </em>spp.) for important cane and sugar yield traits. Twelve different cane and sugar yield components; plot weight, stalk length, stalk diameter, number of stalk per plots, hand refractometer brix, rind hardness, laboratory brix, pol in juice, purity, pure obtainable cane sugar, fibre percent fresh weight and sugar yield per plot were measured or estimated. The data were statistically analyzed for testing significance of variance ratios (ANOVA), phenotypic correlations, clustering of parental clones and estimation of breeding values of the parental clones. The results revealed stalk length and number of stalks to be the major determinants of cane yield. A total of 2,500 bi-parental crossing combinations were identified from the selected parental accessions with the best breeding values for the development of high cane and high sugar yielding progenies. The accessions H 820778, M 1356, SL 89 2688, SLC 87 04, SLC 08 62, SLC 08 106, SLC 12 05 and SLC 91 20 were identified as the most promising parents to be used in simultaneous improvement of cane yield and sugar content with moderate fibre content.
Highlights
Sugarcane (Saccharum) is a perennial C4 plant which belongs to the family Poaceae
Significant and positive correlations of hand refractometer brix to laboratory brix, pol, purity and pure obtainable cane sugar (POCS) observed in the present study have proved that the assessment of varieties for sugar content through hand brix is realistically accurate in initial screening of high sugar parental clones in the germplasm collection
Out of the 509 sugarcane accessions evaluated in this study nine accessions were superior to the standard check variety Co 775 in cane yield and a further 40 accessions were superior in sugar content
Summary
Sugarcane (Saccharum) is a perennial C4 plant which belongs to the family Poaceae. It is cultivated in tropical and subtropical countries exclusively for sugar production. About 75% of global sugar production is accounted for by sugarcane, and the rest is produced from sugar beet (Conterras et al, 2009). It had been projected that sugarcane will contribute to 86% of sugar production by the year 2025 (OECD-FAO, 2018). Asia is the highest consumer of sugar in the world while India and Pakistan are the largest sugar producers and consumers in South Asia (OECD-FAO, 2018). It is expected that South Asia may face overall food shortage including sugar due to rise in population and it is imperative to these countries to become self-sufficient with respect to sugar production in the decades to come (Milovanovic and Smutka, 2016)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
