Correlation and Path Analysis in Early Maturing Sugarcane: Climate Change and Environmental Impact

An investigation was undertaken to identify early maturing sugarcane genotypes for higher sugar yield at the Research Farm of DRPCAU, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar during the spring season of 2018, the experiment was carried out in Randomized Block Climate change is expected to have important consequences for sugarcane production in the world, especially in the developing countries because of relatively low adaptive capacity, high vulnerability to natural hazards, and poor forecasting systems and mitigating strategies. Sugarcane production may have been negatively affected and will continue to be considerably affected by increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme environmental conditions due to climate change. Design with three replications. Correlation and path analysis in twelve genotypes of sugarcane for twenty one different morphological and juice quality characters were studied in relation to the checks viz. CoLk94184 and CoSe95422. Analysis of correlation revealed that the character sugar yield had highly positive genotypic correlation with traits number of millable canes at harvest (0.977), followed by cane yield at harvest (0.963). However, it was negatively correlated with purity percentage at the 8th month stage (-0.491), cane diameter at harvest (-0.363), number of internodes at harvest (-0.263), length of internodes at harvest (-0.081) and fibre percentage at harvest (-0.039). The trait cane yield at harvest (0.955**) was found to have a highly significant and positive phenotypic association, followed by single cane weight at harvest (0.820**) and germination percentage at 45 DAP (0.510**).On the other hand, it was found that the traits cane diameter at harvest (-0.236), number of internodes at harvest (-0.151) and length of internodes at harvest (-0.099) had non-significant negative phenotypic associations with sugar yield. Positive direct effect on sugar yield at phenotypic level was exerted maximally by cane yield at harvest (t/ha) (1.51) followed by CCS percentage at 10th month stage (0.29) and pol in juice at 10th month stage (0.21), germination Percentage at 45 DAP (%), cane diameter (cm) and length of internode (cm), whereas at genotypic level maximum positive direct effect was observed in the case of pol percentage in cane at harvest followed by single cane weight (kg) and brix percentage at 10th month.