New Drought Tolerant Sugarcane Varieties (Saccharum officinarum) to be Developed on Ferké Sugar Plantations in Northern Ivory Coast

Abstract

The study was motivated by lower cane yields observed often on non-irrigated industrial plantations as well as village plantations in Ivory Coast. Its objective was to determine high performing drought tolerant cane varieties. Each of the tree field trials carried out on Ferké 1 as well as Ferké 2 commercial plantations in northern Ivory Coast was set up following a randomized complete block design involving 10 varieties in 6 replications. All experiments were conducted over three consecutive harvest cycles, i.e. a plant crop followed by two ratoons, cane yield and crop tolerance to endemic diseases being the main screening criteria. The performance of varieties M1176/77, M1246/84, M2593/92, M1565/87 and N21 were significantly higher compared to that of control varieties R579 and SP70/1143. Varieties RB80/6043 and SP81/3250 were equivalent to the best control variety, namely R579. Among all seven drought tolerant varieties selected as drought tolerant, the high-yielding ones to undergo pre-commercial tests were M1176/77 and N21 with on average 82 and 85t of cane/ha, respectively, over three consecutive cropping cycles starting from plant cane.