AN OVERVIEW ON THE SELECTION STRATEGIES IN SUGARCANE BREEDING PROGRAMMES

Abstract

New sugarcane varieties identified for commercial cultivation are developed through a systematic selection procedure. As in most crops, G x E interactions reduces the selection efficiency and increase the complexity of the selection programme. Several breeding programmes demonstrated that family selection when followed by mass (individual) selection was superior in terms of genetic gain for the most important characters such as Commercial Cane Sugar yield, Cane yield, and Net Merit Grade. A liberal form of family selection is generally practiced and more clones are identified from the best families. The availability of objective data on family performance combined with the estimates of BLUP (Best Linear Unbiased Predictor) is essential for getting an overall improvement in the selection efficiency.