COMPARATIVE STUDY ON AGRO-PHYSIOLOGY OF SUGARCANE (SACCHARUM OFFICINARUM L.) GENOTYPES AT DIFFERENT IRRIGATION CO-EFFICIENT VALUES

Drought is the primary factor limiting sugarcane growth and physiological development under the climatic conditions of Pakistan; especially in those areas where without supplemental irrigation, productivity is not possible. Lack of detailed information regarding the performance of cane varieties under drought during formative stage and poor selection breeding program played key role in limiting cane productivity. The proposed study was conducted to investigate the genetic response of different cultivars viz., CSSG-676, CSSG-668, HoSG-795, HoSG-529, NSG-59 and HSF- 240 (standard) regarding the physiological development of sugarcane and its productivity at different irrigation co-efficient levels (100%, 80% and 60%). This study elucidates that moisture has a pronounced impact on the physiological attributes of sugarcane and proper irrigation scheduling with 20 no. of irrigations were reported best in-term of better germination (69.65%), leaf area index (7.13), crop growth rate (8.44), net assimilation rate (1.06) and chlorophyll contents (5.98). Similarly in case of genomic response, NSG-59 was reported significant best as compared to all other test cultivars in term of better physiological performance, showing significant higher leaf area index, crop growth rate, chlorophyll contents and water use efficiency that maximized the crop growth and resulted in higher net assimilation rate. Higher proline contents (1.59) produced in NSG-59 also made it best under drought conditions.