Assessing Open-pollinated Sugarcane Varietal Crosses for Productivity and Climate-resilient Traits in the Sexual Generation

Abstract

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) is an important agro-industrial crop in which exploitable variability is essential for varietal improvement. This study evaluated variability for productivity traits and desirable climate-resilient features, including non-flowering behaviour and foliar disease resistance, at the Agricultural Research Station, Sankeshwar, during 2023–2025. A total of 1,806 hybrid progenies derived from 63 open-pollinated crosses, along with seven commercial checks, were assessed in the seedling (sexual) generation using an augmented design. Eighteen families with adequate progeny population size were further evaluated for productivity traits, fluff (true seed) germination and seedling establishment parameters. The analysis of variance indicated significant differences among tested progenies for most cane yield and juice quality traits, except juice extraction percentage. High heritability and genetic advance as a percentage of the mean were recorded for the number of millable canes, number of internodes, cane height, single cane weight, cane yield and commercial cane sugar yield, indicating scope for direct selection in the seedling generation. Among the 18 open-pollinated general-collection families, CoPant 97222 GC, Co 10027 GC, MS 68/47 GC, SNK 09293 GC, Co 20007 GC, Co 19014 GC and CoN 15071 GC showed promising performance for varietal development aimed at improving cane and sugar productivity over the commercial standard Co 86032. These families recorded favourable mean productivity and higher proportions of selected progenies, suggesting the possibility of isolating transgressive segregants with useful climate-resilient traits. In addition, Co 19014 GC and SNK 09293 GC showed potential for direct commercial cultivation through improvement in seedling selection or enhanced fluff germination, respectively.