Newly developed Sugarcane variety

·         NCS-009 Industrial Sugarcane Variety have been released and registered by National Crop Varieties and Livestock Breeds Registration and Release Committee (NCVLBRRC) in collaboration with National Cereals Research Institute for cultivation by farmers and sugar estates across all the ecologies in Nigeria.

·         Morphological characteristics: Adapted to well drained light and heavy soils, medium maturity, resistant to whip smut disease, high ratoonability and potential yield (110 t ha^-1)

Screening of thirty five sugarcane accessions for smut resistance at NCRI   Badeggi

• NCS-009 and NCS 003 gave the best yield of 112.8 and 111.1 t/ha which was              significantly the same with the yield obtained from NCS 002 (104.4 t/ha). This shows that the indigenous varieties perform better or can tolerate smut strain from this           environment than some exotic accessions.
• Three accessions (KNB 9218, DB 75159 and B47419) had zero smutted stalk percent during the plant crop. The highest smut percentage was recorded in BOO 270.

 Plate 1: Genetics and Mechanism of Smut resistance in sugarcane

Response of sugarcane varieties and weeding regimes on growth and yield sugarcane

• The sugarcane variety NCS 001 in combination with Monthly Hoe Weeding performed  better in terms of  growth contributing attributes and the  reduction of weeds  
• The most readily abundant and dominate weed species are Paspalum scrobiculatum (Linn.) and Setaria pumila  (Poir)