EVALUATION OF SOME NEW SUGARCANE VARIETIES FOR CANE YIELD AND QUALITY IN DIFFERENT AGRO-ECOLOGICAL ZONES OF SINDH

A comparative study for cane yield and quality performance on five newly developed sugarcane varieties namely, HoTh-401, HoTh-409, HoTh-420, HoTh-432 and HoTh-438 against the standard variety Thatta-10 was conducted at three locations of Sindh viz., Matiari, Sanghar and Tando Allahyar. All the varieties showed variable genetic behavior for cane yield, CCS% and sugar yield at different locations. The overall calculated average results for all three locations revealed that HoTh-409 remained superior by producing maximum average cane yield against check variety Thatta-10. However, the variety HoTh-420 displayed almost equal performance for average cane yield against the check variety. Likewise, the rest of the varieties like HoTh-438, HoTh-432 and HoTh-401 exhibited comparable performance with regard to average cane yield but could not surpass the Thatta- 10. The comparison of varietal means for commercial cane sugar percentage in all three locations indicated that the varieties HoTh-401, HoTh-438 and HoTh-409 remained best by producing maximum average CCS% against the Thatta-10. The comparison of varietals means for sugar yield indicated that the variety HoTh-409 remained best by producing maximum average sugar yield. While, the check variety Thatta-10 and HoTh-420 remained almost similar to each other in terms of this trait. This one year's study is not enough to judge the true potential of a variety. Therefore, it was suggested that the performance of these varieties should to be investigated under different agro-climatic conditions of Sindh for several years so as to extract the ample conclusions.