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7. Future directions in variety improvementResults from historical comparisons of varieties indicate that most gains in sugar improvement have arisen through improvements in cane yield, and in the past four decades, relatively little improvement in CCS has been made among most released cultivars.Reasons for this are unclear and at first seem contrary to what might be expected, given that CCS as a trait has genetic properties (moderate to high broad and narrow sense heritabilities, not strongly affected by competition effects in small plot trials) which should make selection effective.One suggestion occasionally proposed for lack of genetic gain is that there is a ‘‘physiological limit’’ to sucrose storage in cane, which has already been reached. However, cane harvested in most commercial cane fields has a sucrose content that is well below the highest levels observed. For example, the average CCS in Australia is about 13% (Anon, 1997) but values from individual blocks of mature cane occasionally reach 17% or 18%. Clearly, if 17% (or a higher value) represents some physiological or physical limit to sucrose in sugarcane, this is not reached in the vast majority of situations. The limitation therefore is the response of sugarcane to the environmental conditions up to harvest.
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