Co 16030: a new improved sugarcane variety for North West Zone of India

The focus of sugarcane improvement programmes in India has been on the cultivation of improved varieties for diverse agroecological regions. The inclusion of mid-late maturing varieties along with early maturing varieties, enables strategic planning of sugarcane varieties across the zones, ensuring prolonged and an efficient operation of sugar mills. In view of this, ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Regional Centre, Karnal has developed a mid-late maturing sugarcane variety Co 16030 ( Karan-16) for commercial cultivation in sugarcane growing states of North West Zone. Co 16030 was tested in nine locations of the North West Zone (NWZ) of India along with three standards CoS 767, CoPant 97222 and Co 05011 during 2019-20 to 2021-22. The variety exhibited significant performance over the standards Co 05011, CoPant 97222 and CoS 767. In the AICRP(S) trials, it recorded a cane yield of 94.97 t/ha-1, sucrose content of 17.90% and sugar yield of 11.96 t /ha-1 at 360 days. The variety exhibited resistant to moderately resistant reaction against red rot (CF8 and CF9) and was susceptible to the major insects. Karan-16 was identified for notification by the variety release committee of AICRP (Sugarcane) held at ICAR-Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow during October 14 & 15, 2022 and was notified for release in the zone, vide Gazette notification No. S.O. 4222(E) dated 23 September 2023.