Strategies Used for Variety Selection in the Breeding Programme at the Zimbabwe Sugar Association Experiment Station

Sugarcane breeding is expensive because the plant is perennial and the frequency in obtaining superior clones is low. Plant breeding involves developing strategies that will increase the probability of identifying superior varieties. This paper discusses the strategies used to select varieties with high sugar yield, good disease and pest tolerance and adaptable to the South-East Lowveld of Zimbabwe. Potential strategies for the future are described. In the Single Stools and Single Lines stages (unreplicated), the strategy is to discard all genotypes with undesirable traits. In the Variety Observation Trials, Advanced Variety Trials and Pre-release Variety Trials (replicated stages) the strategy is to select those varieties that show an advantage over the control cultivars (N14 and NCo376) in yield, cane quality, pest and disease tolerance and ratooning ability. Future strategies could focus on molecular genetic markers, physiological genetic markers and possibly replicating varieties at the single lines stage.