International Journal of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources 2018; 5(2): 30-33 http://www.aascit.org/journal/ijasnr ISSN: 2375-3773 Performance of Sugarcane Genotypes Under Different Nitrogen Levels in Sub-Tropical Region of Nepal Shankar Shrestha * , Kapil Paudel, Ram Krishna Rajak National Sugarcane Research Program, Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Jitpur, Bara, Nepal Email address * Corresponding author Citation Shankar Shrestha, Kapil Paudel, Ram Krishna Rajak. Performance of Sugarcane Genotypes Under Different Nitrogen Levels in Sub-Tropical Region of Nepal. International Journal of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. Vol. 5, No. 2, 2018, pp. 30-33. Received: April 11, 2018; Accepted: May 2, 2018; Published: June 1, 2018 Abstract: A field experiment was conducted during consecutive years of 2014-16 to study the effect of different nutrient levels on performance of sugarcane genotypes on sandy loam soils at National Sugarcane Research Program, Jitpur, Bara, Nepal. The experiment was laid out in split plot design of four nitrogen levels 75%, 100%, 125%, 150% of recommended dose (RD) i.e 112.5, 150, 187.5, 225 kg N/ha for plant crop and 150, 200, 250, 300 kg N/ha for ratoon respectively and four varieties viz. CoLk 94184, BO 147, Co 0233 and BO 141 replicated thrice. The experimental results revealed that significantly increased in number of millable cane and cane yield with increasing nitrogen levels. Application of 150% nitrogen RD (225 and 300 kg N/ha) significantly counted higher number millable canes (115548.43/ha and 100700/ha) in both plant and ratoon crop respectively. High nitrogen levels i.e. 187.5 and 225 kg N/ha showed significant higher cane yield over 150 kg N/ha by 7.22 and 9.36% in plant crop respectively. Reducing nitrogen levels by 25% of RD resulted significantly low yield of 59.78 mt/ha, shortest stalk length (1.87 m) and low single cane weight of 0.65 kg in ratoon crop but not significantly difference in stalk length, cane diameter and single cane weight in plant crop. The data indicated that significantly higher number of millable cane was counted in genotypes CoLk 94184 of 124831.06/ha and 107400/ha in both plant and ratoon crop respectively followed by BO 141 and Co 0233. Higher cane yield was produced by genotypes BO 141 (94.01 and 75.89 mt/ha) and Co 0233 (93.18 and 81.72 mt/ha) in plant crop as well as in ratoon crop respectively. The ratoon performance index (RPI) of genotypes Co 0233 (89.21), CoLk 94181 (84.01) and BO 141 (81.59) were identified as better as compared to BO 147. Keywords: Nitrogen, Sugarcane Genotypes, Millable Cane, Ratoon Performance Index 1. Introduction In Nepal, sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) is one of the largest cash and industrial crop that plays a pivotal role in national economy. It is being grown in all agro-ecological zones but intensive commercial production accounts highest in terai region. The high demand for sugarcane-derived products has stimulated the expansion of sugarcane cultivation and sugar factories establishment in recent years. Sugarcane area has been increased by four fold (17,480 to 666,000 hectares) and total production increased by almost eight folds (408,260 to 3,063,000 tons) from 1985 to 2015 [7]. Nepal is also ranked 40 th among the sugarcane producing country in the world [3]. However, national productivity is limited to only 46 t/ha [7] as compared to other countries like India, China, and Thailand etc. There might be several factors that contribute to low cane production and productivity such as low yielding varieties, biotic stresses, abiotic stresses, and poor adoption of improve technologies. The variety plays an important role in boosting cane productivity. However, cane yield and quality in sugarcane are dependent on several quantitatively inherited characters which themselves are also influenced by environment [5]. Varieties behave differently in different soil and agro climatic conditions. In subtropical Nepal, the availability of sugarcane genotypes with higher cane and sugar yield potential is an important strategy to fetch high sugar recovery in the mills. The major agronomic intervention can accelerate the