Genetic Variability of Sugarcane Clones as Affected by Endemic Diseases at One-Row Screening Stage in Ferké, Northern Ivory Coast

Background: Sugarcane is a major commercial crop grown in tropical and subtropical areas of the world, including West and Central Africa. Across this region, smut, leaf scald and pokkah boeng are considered as endemic diseases, the first two being economically important.

Aims: The overall study objective was to contribute to sugarcane yield improvement in Ivory Coast. The specific objective was to evaluate the diversity of susceptible sugarcane genotypes mainly in first ratoon crop to three major endemic diseases under natural infection, namely leaf scald, smut and pokkah boeng.

Methodology: The study was carried out over 2 seasons (2016-18) as plant and first ratoon cane at Ferké 1 experimental station under full covering sprinkler irrigation in northern Ivory Coast. Treatments were composed of 863 sugarcane genotypes split into 39 families planted at single row density. Planting was done per genotype in rows of 3 m long depending on families, without replication and compared to the check variety SP70/1006. That check was replicated every five rows to ease comparison with the clones. Phytosanitary observations regarding the three endemic diseases made at the age of five months were subjected to a series of multivariate analyses.

Results: The study showed that most relevant diseases determining the diversity of susceptible sugarcane genotypes were, in descending order, pokkah boeng, smut and leaf scald. Increase in clone infestations on first ratoon cane compared with plant cane was observed regarding the three endemic diseases but more importantly for smut by 51%. The dendrogram deduced from cluster analysis showed that infected genotypes were split into six groups with same families belonging often to different clusters so that no family investigated specifically susceptible or resistant to any disease was determined. In other words, each family investigated was composed of disease-free as well as susceptible genotypes in proportions varying from one family to another.

Conclusions: All families investigated were relevant to maintain the diversity required for the breeding process underway. Examples of recommended families were the following: disease-free (F02, F03, F04, F05, F06); resistant (F01, F06, F07, F08, F09); moderately resistant (F10, F11, F12, F13, F14).