Article Sidebar
Article Details
NAJ supports free online communication and exchange of knowledge as the most effective way of ensuring that the fruits of research and development practice are made widely available. It is therefore committed to open access, which, for authors, enables the widest possible dissemination of their findings and, for readers, increases their ability to discover pertinent information. The Journal adopts and uses the CC: BY license and is open access. This license lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the Journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Copyright for articles published in this Journal is retained by the Journal.
Main Article Content
Effect of climate variability on sugarcane breeding in Nigeria
Abstract
Flowering in sugarcane (Saccharum species) is poor and variable at many tropical locations due to sub-optimal photoperiod. The situation is often compounded by moisture stress with the consequence of poor pollination success from hybridization programmes. This study assessed the impact of variability in weather factors on sugarcane breeding activities of two sugarcane breeding stations in Nigeria. Data showed that the highest pollination success was recorded for crosses (bi-parentals and polycrosses) in 2005 flowering season at Badeggi while none of the fuzz from the two types of crosses was viable in 2007 and 2008 respectively. The difference in pollination success between polycrosses and bi-parentals in 2005 season was 50 percent (%) while that between 2005 and 2006 flowering season for the bi-parentals was 75(%). Seedling mortality was the highest at Ilorin in 2008 and those that survived could not be advanced to the yield testing stage I due to poor morphological characteristics exhibited by the few surviving progenies. The difference between the year with highest pollination success (2007) and other years on this station were 78.96 and 43.35% respectively while that between 2009 and 2008 was 62.29%. We conclude that high temperatures during the ripening period acting singly or in combination with sub-optimal photoperiodism during flowering, was responsible for low viability of fuzz (sugarcane seeds) recorded in both stations in the last three years. Therefore, acquisition of infrastructure to improve flowering by imposing stronger photoperiodic stimuli for initiation, by avoiding high initiation temperatures, or both, along with identification of suitable locations that facilitate making crosses among the best parents available, will lead to attainment of self-sufficiency in sugar production in Nigeria.
Keywords: Climate Change, Variability and Sugarcane Breeding
