The productivity of sugarcane is limited by several biotic and abiotic stresses, of which drought is an important environmental stress, causing substantial yield losses especially in tropical parts of the world. The present day sugarcane cultivars are derivatives of interspecific hybrids involving Saccharum officinarum and S. spontaneum and the drought tolerance is governed by S. sponaneum. Of late considerable attention has been given to utilize Erianthus Spp, the related wild genera of Saccharum, shows remarkable levels of drought tolerance under water limited condition. In this study, experiments were conducted to compare the influence of drought on biomass, yield and physiology of commercial and Erianthus introgressed clones. The results showed that the cane yield was reduced 37.98% in commercial clones compared to 24.67% in Erianthus introgressed clones under drought. The highest stress tolerance index (STI) of 1.256 was recorded in the clone CYM 08–922 which is a backcross hybrid involving Erianthus arundinaceus. Significant differences were observed for leaf area index, relative water content, lipid peroxidation and epicuticular wax content among the genotypes and between treatments. Sugar yield was most affected by drought (38.86%) followed by cane yield (33.30%), NMC (26.79%) and single cane weight (22.49%). Cane yield showed a positive and significant correlation with dry biomass under both irrigated (r = 0.303) and drought situations (r = 0.404) and among the physiological parameters, only RWC showed significant and positive correlation with cane yield (r = 0.307). The leaf dry matter was 14.55% higher under drought indicating influence of drought on translocation of dry matter from leaves to canes. Among clones CoM 0265, Co 06022, CYM 08-922, CYM 09-1369 and GU 12-31 showed greater ability to partition dry matter in to canes under drought than the other clones and had higher stress tolerant index. Cane height, number of millable stalks and RWC% showed positive and significant association with cane yield under both drought and irrigated condition and could be important parameters in screening clones under sugarcane improvement programmes.

甘蔗的生产力受到多种生物和非生物胁迫的限制，其中干旱是一种重要的环境胁迫，特别是在世界热带地区造成大量产量损失。目前的甘蔗品种是甘蔗和S. spontaneum的种间杂种的衍生物，耐旱性受S. sponaneum 支配。最近，人们对利用Erianthus Spp给予了相当大的关注，Saccharum 的相关野生属在缺水条件下表现出显着的耐旱性。在这项研究中，进行了实验以比较干旱对商业和 Erianthus 渗入克隆的生物量、产量和生理的影响。结果表明，在干旱条件下，商业无性系的甘蔗产量降低了 37.98%，而 Erianthus 渗入无性系的甘蔗产量降低了 24.67%。在克隆 CYM 08-922 中记录了 1.256 的最高胁迫耐受指数 (STI)，这是涉及Erianthus arundinaceus的回交杂种. 叶面积指数、相对含水量、脂质过氧化和表皮蜡含量在基因型之间和处理之间存在显着差异。糖产量受干旱影响最大（38.86%），其次是甘蔗产量（33.30%）、NMC（26.79%）和单甘蔗重量（22.49%）。在灌溉（r = 0.303）和干旱情况（r = 0.404）以及生理参数中，甘蔗产量均与干生物量呈显着正相关，只有RWC与甘蔗产量（r = 0.307）呈显着正相关。在干旱条件下，叶片干物质高出 14.55%，表明干旱对干物质从叶片到藤茎的转运的影响。在克隆 CoM 0265、Co 06022、CYM 08-922、CYM 09-1369 和 GU 12-31 在干旱条件下表现出比其他无性系更大的干物质分配能力，并且具有更高的抗逆指数。在干旱和灌溉条件下，甘蔗高度、可碾磨茎的数量和 RWC% 与甘蔗产量呈显着正相关，并且可能是甘蔗改良计划下筛选克隆的重要参数。