Vol. 5 (3) : 197 - 198 (2003) SHORT COMMUNICATION Association of Quality Character with Cane and Commercial Cane Sugar Yields in Sugarcane Anshuman Singh 1, P.K. Bhatnagar 2, A.Q. Khan 3 and P.K. Shrotria 4 1Research Scholar, 2Junior Research Officer, 3professor, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding and 4Junior Research Officer, Sorghum Breeding Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, U.S. Nagar , 263 145, Uttaranchal, India The present investigation was carried out to study the association of quality characters with cane and commercial cane sugar yields in sugarcane (Saccharum spp. complex). It was found that cane yield had nonsignificant negative correlations with juice brix juice sucrose juice purity and extraction percents, whereas its association with commercial cane sugar yield was highly significant positive. Commercial cane sugar yield had nonsignificant positive correlations with juice brix, juice sucrose, juice purity and commercial cane sugar percents. Path coefficient analysis revealed maximum direct effects of commercial cane sugar per cent and juice sucrose per cent on cane and commercial cane sugar yields. It is suggested that quality characters should also be taken into consideration in clonal selection programme for evolving improved sugarcane genotypes. KEYWORDS : Correlation, Path coefficient, Sugarcane, Quality Cane yield and sucrose content in juice, the characters sought for improvement in sugarcane, are negatively associated with each other (Batcha and Sahi, 1972; Balasundaram and Bhagyalakshmi, 1978). To overcome this limitation, commercial cane sugar yield is estimated and emphasis is given to it in clonal selection. Cane and commercial cane sugar yields are influenced by several quality characters. Hence it was considered desirable to workout the relationship of these characters with cane and commercial cane sugar yields, so that an appropriate and efficient selection strategy could be adopted for improvement. The experimental material consisted of 20 elite genotypes and 4 checks viz., Co 1148, CoS 767 (Mid- late), CoJ 64 and Co Pant 84211 (early) were planted in a randomized block design with 3 replications on 24 th April, 1996. The plot size for each entry represented 4 rows of 2.5 m length spaced 75 cm apart. Correlation coefficients and path coefficients (direct and indirect effects) of characters were worked out as suggested by Searle (1961) and Dewey and Lu (1959). Author for Correspondence : Dr. A.Q. Khan e-mail : anshuman22923@yahoo.co.in Phenotypic correlation coefficients of the characters are presented in table 1. Juice brix, juice sucrose, juice purity and juice extraction percentage showed negative and nonsignificant correlations with cane yield. Similar results were also reported by Pillai and Ethirajan (1993). Juice brix, juice sucrose, juice purity and commercial cane sugar percentage (CCS%) showed a positive but nonsignificant association with commercial cane sugar yield. Cane yield showed a highly significant positive association with commercial cane sugar yield. These results are in agreement to those of Reddy and Khan (1984). Path analysis was based on phenotypic correlation coefficients and direct arid indirect effects of characters were determined for cane yield (table 2) and commercial cane sugar yield (table 3). Commercial cane sugar per cent had highest direct effect on cane yield followed by juice sucrose per cent. Other characters contributed to cane yield indirectly via commercial cane sugar per cent. The CCS% had highest direct effect on CCS yield followed by juice sucrose per cent. Other characters contributed to commercial cane sugar yield via commercial cane sugar per cent. Kang et al. (1983 and 1989) also gave higher emphasis on commercial cane sugar per cent for improvement in commercial 197