Response of Sugarcane Cultivars to Different Irrigation Regime under Peninsular Zone of Maharashtra, India

A field experiment was conducted during the years 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 suru seasons with eight sugarcane cultivars and two irrigation regimes were evaluated in the strip plot design with three replications. The impact of water stress on various morphological characters such as plant height, leaf area, leaf area index and tiller count was recorded at 0.3 and 1.0 IW/CPE irrigation regime. Drought treatment caused an average reduction of 11.10, 33.47, 29.08, 15.33, 22.14 and 18.78 % in plant height, leaf area index, specific leaf weight, dry matter, root dry matter at 200 DAP and cane yield respectively. Cultivar VSI 08005 and CoM 0265 transpired less water and showed relatively higher photosynthetic rate with significant improvement in growth attributes, viz., plant height, leaf area index, specific leaf weight, dry matter accumulation and root dry weight as well as single cane weight and cane yield. Yield and its parameters showed remarkable changes due to inadequate water availability during the formative phase. Water stress led to a reduction in cane and sugar yield to the tune of 23.00 and 29.05 percent.