Sugarcane in Vitro Culture Technology: Applications for Kenya’s Sugar Industry

Abstract

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) is one of the most important crops in Kenya and has wide range of economic importance. The sugar industry contributes up to 15% to the Country’s agricultural gross domestic product and an estimated 25% of the population depends on the industry for their livelihood. However, the industry has been facing several challenges including declining yields due to use of poor quality planting materials. There is an increasing pressure to enhance the productivity of sugarcane in order to sustain profitable sugar industries in Kenya, while there are several diseases attacking sugarcane and reducing its quality. Seed multiplication of newly released varieties of sugarcane is one of the major constraints in Kenya as it takes 6-7 years to produce sufficient quantity of improved seed material. In vitro culture offers a practical and fast method for mass propagation of disease-free clonal materials. Successful protocols for shoot tip culture, callus culture, embryo culture, virus free plant production and somatic embryogenesis have already been established. Thus in vitro technology can be used to enhance productivity of sugarcane in Kenya.

Keywords: Sugarcane,Somaclonal variation, in vitro culture, Meristems, Micro-propagation, callus