Magnitude of Heritability and Characters Association in Selected Population of Sugarcane Germplasm Under Alkaline Condition

Abstract

An experiment was conducted on two groups of sugarcane accessions 15 old (out of cultivation) and 15 new (under cultivation) at the farm of Sugarcane Research and Seed Multiplication Centre, Katya Sadat, Gazipur, U.P. (India) during three consecutive autumn planting seasons 2009–2011 to 2011–2013. The mean value of the characters revealed improvement in different traits which ranged from 8.77 to 56.87 % selection differential rate. High to moderate coefficient of variance was observed for germination, number of shoots, number of millable canes, stalk height, stalk thickness, stalk weight, and cane yield in both the populations. The values of genotypic and phenotypic correlation were higher in new varieties than the old ones for each trait. Further, the value of genotypic correlation was also higher than the phenotypic correlation in both the populations for respective characters. Heritability and correlation response are important criteria for the selection of strong parentage either from the old or new population. Such combinations may be helpful in increasing the cane yield as well as sugar content in the stalk, especially in alkaline condition. The selection of potential parents from the newer population may be more beneficial than the older one except for the selection for some specific desired traits present in the old population. The entries namely CoSe 98231, CoSe 92423, CoSe 95422, CoSe 96436, BO 91, CoLk 8102, and UP 9530 were found better than other entries tested. So it may be suggested that these varieties may be used as parentage in future breeding program to evolve the genetically superior line, which may combine cane yield along with sugar content for alkaline condition area.