Q.How did the plant breeders produce suitable varieties of sugarcane for cultivation in North India ? Why did they do it ?
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Plant breeders produced suitable sugarcane varieties for North India by hybridizing the high-yielding, high-sugar tropical Saccharum officinarum with the hardy North Indian Saccharum barberi, aiming to combine desirable traits for improved cultivation and yield.
Concept and Intuition
Sugarcane is a vital cash crop, and its cultivation in North India faced significant challenges. The native sugarcane varieties grown in North India, primarily Saccharum barberi, were well-adapted to the local environmental conditions, including cooler temperatures and varying soil types. However, they suffered from low yield, thin stems, and poor sugar content. This meant less profit for farmers and lower overall agricultural productivity.
Meanwhile, tropical varieties like Saccharum officinarum (often called 'noble cane') possessed highly desirable traits: thick stems, high sugar content, and high yield. The intuition behind the breeding program was to combine the best of both worlds: the hardiness and adaptability of the North Indian varieties with the superior yield and sugar quality of the tropical varieties. By doing so, breeders aimed to create a new hybrid that could thrive in North India while offering significantly better economic returns.
How Plant Breeders Produced Suitable Varieties
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Identification of Parent Species:
- North Indian Variety: Saccharum barberi was identified as the local variety. It was hardy and adapted to the North Indian climate but had low yield, thin stems, and low sugar content.
- Tropical Variety: Saccharum officinarum was chosen for its superior qualities. It is a tropical cane with thick stems, high sugar content, and high yield, but it was not naturally suited to the North Indian environment.
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Cross-breeding (Hybridization):
- Plant breeders performed controlled cross-pollination between Saccharum officinarum and Saccharum barberi. This process, known as hybridization, involves transferring pollen from one parent plant to the stigma of another to produce offspring (hybrids) that inherit traits from both parents.
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Selection of Desirable Hybrids:
- From the progeny of these crosses, breeders carefully selected individuals that exhibited a combination of the desired traits. They looked for plants that had inherited the thick stems, high sugar content, and high yield from Saccharum officinarum, along with the ability to grow well and tolerate the environmental conditions of North India from Saccharum barberi.
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Development of New Varieties:
- Through repeated cycles of selection and further breeding, stable new hybrid varieties were developed. These varieties, such as Co 205, Co 213, and Co 290 (where 'Co' stands for Coimbatore, the research station where much of this work was done), became widely cultivated.
The key to this success was the strategic hybridization of Saccharum officinarum (high yield, high sugar, thick stem) with Saccharum barberi (hardy, adapted to North India).
Why They Did It
The plant breeders undertook this extensive program for several critical reasons:
- To Improve Yield and Productivity: The native North Indian sugarcane varieties had very low yields, making sugarcane cultivation less profitable for farmers. The primary goal was to significantly increase the amount of sugarcane produced per unit area. …
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