The Karan—6 variety of sugarcane developed in 2010 is increasingly gaining popularity among farmers of North and North—West India.
The variety is developed by Karnal (Haryana)—based Sugarcane Breeding Institute Regional centre (SBIRC), an arm of ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research).
After trial in sugar mills, this category has been found superior to the three major standard varieties of sugarcane in the region in all the parameters like cane yield, juice percentage and sugar percentage, Mr Bakshi Ram, SBIRC chief said.
Karan—6 knows as Co 0239 among scientists grows straight and does not fall on the ground even in the waterlogged condition for a month or more, he added. Further, the quality of sugarcane is least affected due to water logging and less irrigation.
The variety matures early and yields 16 per cent more juice thus providing double benefit to farmers one by early selling of sugarcane to sugar mills and secondly the field is vacated for Rabi crops.
The cane yield of this crop is 79.23 tonne per hectare, sugar yield is 10.37 tonne per hectare and Sucrose percentage is 18.58 per cent, Ram said, adding sugar yield of Co 0239 is 21 per cent higher than its nearest competitor CoJ 64.
The variety ranked 1st for sugar yield in all the varieties grown in North and North West region of India like states of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and parts of Bihar.
Its cane production is 17 per cent higher and Sucrose percentage is 3.8 per cent more than nearest competitor Co J 64,” the SBIRC head said.
The variety is also resistant to red rot disease, the most common disease in sugarcane crop.
The experts of ICAR expect that the variety would prove as a high quality early maturing clone under assured irrigation as well as drought prone and water logging areas as a suitable substitute for CoJ 64.
The variety was tested under abiotic stresses like water logging and moisture stress (less irrigation) conditions and was found least affected. The sugar percentage of Co 0239 in water logging conditions was only 0.34 per cent while in case of Co J 64 its was 1.67 per cent.
The variety was also tested in moisture stress conditions in DSCL Sugar Mill Ajbapur, Uttar Pradesh and the results were very much satisfactory.