Adil Abdel Rahim, Omer Ibrahim, Mohamed Hassan, Hayder Abdelgader:
Adaptation of Sugar Beet (Beta vulgaris var. saccharifera) to Tropical Conditions of Sudan

ADIL ABDEL RAHIM, OMER IBRAHIM, MOHAMED HASSAN, HAYDER ABDELGADER
Agricultural Research Corporation, Agronomy and crop physiology, Sudan

Sugar beet contributes significantly to world sugar industry (45%). Although the leading sugar beet producing countries are in temperate regions, results of adaptation of sugar beet to tropics are encouraging. Accordingly, the current investigation aimed at testing of some sugar beet introductions for yield and quality under tropical conditions of Sudan. Four sugar beet varieties from Strube/Lineal Service, Germany viz., SUD-01-08, SUD-02-08, SUD-03-08 and SUD-04-08 were tested. The experiment was conducted at five locations representing north, east and central Sudan climates. Moreover, two sowing dates were used in central Sudan location. Results manifested no significant differences among tested varieties in root yield in all testing sites, except at Gezira 1 and Gezira 2. Moreover, the effect of variety x environment interaction was not significant. However, the combined root yield means were significantly different as SUD-03-08 (97tonha^-1) was leading followed by SUD-02-08 (90.9tonha^-1), SUD-04-08 (88.1tonha^-1) and SUD-01-08 (85.9tonha^-1). Similarly, SUD-03-08 produced the highest combined mean sugar yield (16.1tonha^-1) followed by SUD-02-08 (14.8tonha^-1), SUD-04-08 (14.7tonha^-1) and SUD-01-08 (13.7tonha^-1). The effect of variety on sucrose content (Pol %) was not significant, except at Hudeiba location. The combined means were also not significantly different with overall sucrose content of 16.59%. The effects of variety and variety x environment interaction on total soluble solids (TSS=Brix %) were not significant and the overall average TSS was 19.15. Similar results were observed for fibre%, purity% and pH with overall averages of 3.2%, 86.6% and 8.3, respectively. The effect of environment on average root weight was significant with New Halfa produced the largest root weight (1.873kg) while New Hamdab produced the smallest root weight (0.618kg). The effect of variety on forage yield was significant at Gezira 1, but not at Gezira 2 and Dongola testing sites. The combined forage yield means were significantly different with SUD-03-08 produced the highest forage yield (10.8tonha^-1) followed by SUD-02-08 (9.0tonha^-1), SUD-04-08 (8.7tonha^-1) and SUD-01-08 (6.4tonha^-1). To close, our results clearly demonstrated the high potential for sugar beet production under tropical conditions of Sudan.

Keywords: Adaptation, sucrose, sugar beet, sugar yield

Footnotes

... 

Contact Address: Adil Abdel Rahim, Agricultural Research Corporation, Horticultural Research CenterWad Medani, Sudan, e-mail: abdelrahimadilyahoo.com