Identifying potential sugarcane families for cane yield and juice quality traits in early selection stages

Seventy two F1s segregating populations were studied from 2012–13 to 2017–18 to identify promising crosses and proven male as well as female parents along with suitable breeding strategies for developing early maturing varieties. Sufcient variability within and among the segregating populations was observed with a high probability of getting early maturing genotypes. Percentage population selected expressed signifcant positive correlation coefficient with Brix% (0.71) and number of seedling selected (0.48) only. A total twelve biparental crosses were found to be promising. However, based on average performances repeated over years, four specific cross combinations as well as two female parents and three male parents were observed most promising comparatively as exhibiting higher value of NMC (4.0), Brix (18.0) and percentage population selected (80.0). Thus emphasis should be given on individual trait based Efficient selection at early clonal stages on large population per cross under concerned environmental condition(s).