172GENETIC VARIABILITY, ASSOCIATION AND THEIR DISSECTION THROUGH PATH ANALYSIS FOR CANE YIELD AND ITS COMPONENT TRAITS IN EARLY MATURING SUGARCANE CLONESGenetic variability, correlations and path coefficients were studied in thirteen phenotypically diverse early maturing sugarcane clones, which were planted in randomized block design. The study revealed highly significant differences among the 13 clones for all the characters studied, indicated the ample variation. High phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation were observed for number of shoots at 240 days followed by cane diameter and number of tiller at 120 days and single cane weight. High heritability estimates were recorded for stalk diameter (80.69%) and moderate for cane yield (74.42%) and number of millable canes (NMC) at 10 months (72.49%) implying simple selection for these traits would be effective. Maximum genetic gain (as percent of mean) was observed for stalk length (37.09%) followed by number of shoots (34.31%) indicating that there exist a scope to improve cane yield through this trait. Moderate heritability coupled with high genetic advance observed for number of shoots and cane length indicated the presence of additive gene action. Correlation coefficient revealed that cane yield was found to be significantly and positively correlated with NMC at10 months, stalk length, single cane weight, cane diameter and germination percentage at 45 days indicating the importance of these traits to be involved in selection criteria. Partioning of association into their direct and indirect effects showed that highest positive direct effect on cane yield is exerted by growth characters like no. of shoots 240 days, number millable canes, single cane weight and stalk diameter in this study so be taken into consideration in clonal selection programme for evolving improved sugarcane genotypes.sangheragulzar@pau.eduResearch512015Sugarcane,genetic variability,heritability,correlation and path analysisGS Sanghera,V Tyagi, R Kumar,KS Thind and B SharmaPunjab Agricultural University, Regional Research Station, Kapurthala -144 601, Punjab, India,Punjab Agricultural University, Regional Research Station, Kapurthala -144 601, Punjab, India,Punjab Agricultural University, Regional Research Station, Kapurthala -144 601, Punjab, India