Evaluation of Sugarcane Clones with Biological Nitrogen Fixation Endowment

The study was conducted with 45 Sugarcane clones grown at zero-N and 120 kg N ha-1 levels in order to evaluate their possible BNF (biological nitrogen fixation) capability under field conditions. Field evaluation led to identification of some clones viz., I 153/94, Co 846, B 34-104 and Isd 28 that demonstrated considerable BNF capability. The yields of these clones at zero-N were 54.30, 61.48, 53.69 and 63.97 t ha-1 but at 120 kg N ha￣1 it was 59.72, 65.75, 57.15 and 70.59 t ha-1, respectively. The non BNF clones Isd 2/54 and Isd 18 showed poor yield at zero-N (31.38 and 28.17 t ha-1) while at 120 kg N ha-1 it was 54.61 and 61.58 t ha-1. The BNF capable clones performed almost equally well under both zero-N and 120kg N ha-1 as demonstrated through number of tiller (000 ha-1), number of millable cane (000 ha-1) and leaf nitrogen content at 120 and 200 days after plantation (DAP). Under aseptic culture condition, root extract and cane juice from the BNF- endowed clones showed the presence of gram negative bacterium that have been subjected to further studies.