A study on the nature and magnitude of variations in different traits in sugarcane

Nature and magnitude of the variation for different agronomic traits in sugarcane under subtropical conditions of North-western Uttar Pradesh was studied. An estimation of heritability and genetic advance of these components under different environmental conditions was worked out. Fourteen sugarcane genotypes in three crop year experiment were analysed for 15 different characters and variance at phenotypic and genotypic levels, broad sense heritability, genetic advance and pooled analysis of variance were worked out. Coefficients of variation were high for the number of canes per plot, cane yield, cane weight, commercial cane sugar at 8 month stage and for sugar yield at harvesting. The highest heritability values were obtained for juice brix %, juice sucrose % and CCS % at 12 month stage, juice brix %, juice sucrose % at 8 month, cane weight, cane yield and sugar yield per plot. The lowest heritability values were observed for number of internodes, CCS % at 8 month stage, cane diameter and juice extraction % at 12 month stage. Genetic Advance was high for cane weight, cane height, number of canes per plot and cane yield. High magnitude of coefficient of variations, high heritability and maximum genetic gain for number of millable canes, cane weight and cane height showed emphatic role of these characters in clonal selection for improvement in cane and sugar yield. Variance analysis indicated significant genetic differences among the varieties for all characters.