CoA 16321: a promising early maturing sugarcane clone for yield and quality

A promising early clone CoA 16321 was developed from 87A 298 X 87A 380 at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Anakapalle. It was tested against the popular standards CoC 01061, CoA92081 and CoOr 03151 for its performance under yield trials from 2019–20 to 2020–21 in two plant and one ratoon crops under AICRP trials. The pre release clone CoA 16321 recorded maximum number of millable canes (113.23 thousands/ha), cane yield (122.09 t/ha), sugar yield (15.68 t/ha) and was found to be superior than the standard CoC 01061 (105.36 thousands/ha, 106.56 t/ha and 12.68 t/ha), CoA 92081 (118.27 thousands/ha, 102.17 t/ha and 12.61 t/ha) and CoOr 03151 (99.98 thousands/ha, 100.20 t/ha and 10.90 t/ha) respectively. The quality parameters viz., brix percent (20.11), per cent juice sucrose (18.36) and CCS per cent (12.84) in CoA 16321 was on par with the best standard CoC 01061 (19.01%, 17.12% and 11.95%) respectively. With respect to the yield components the clone has recorded higher cane length (222.00 cm), cane diameter (2.21 cm) and single cane weight (1.09 kg) when compared to the best standard CoC 01061 (268.56 cm, 1.58 cm and 1.02 kg) respectively. The improved clone CoA 16321 was also resistant to red rot under nodal and plug method of inoculation. It ishaving medium thick cane with erect, tall growing habit and non lodging nature. The clone can be distinguishable by purple cane (exposed) with straight alignment of internodes and purple leaf sheath with green foliage and slightly droopy at tips. © The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Society for Plant Research 2023.