DIVERGENCE IN SUGARCANE (SACCHARUM OFFICINARUM L.) BASED ON YIELD AND QUALITY TRAITS

Fourteen genotypes of sugarcane, Saccharum officinarum L., were investigated for determining genetic diversity based on 12 quantitative traits using Meteroglyph and Divergence analysis based on pivotal elements. High variation was observed for most of the characters including sucrose recovery with high superiority of the genotypes, CP-43-33, CP-72-2086, COJ-84 and SPSG-26. Four clusters were observed with four genotypes in three clusters in each case, whereas cluster IV consisted two genotypes. The genotypes with high index scores can be crossed to have maximum variability of good combinations of characters. Though cluster analyses grouped genotypes with greater similarity for agronomic traits, they did not necessarily include the genotypes from the same source or origin.