Efficiencies of reinforced bib and augmented· Block designs in sugarcane test families’ vs Controls experiments

Abstract

The designs used for experimentation generally require making all the possible paired comparisons among the treatments but in plant breeding selection programmes the comparison of interest is usually a subset of all the possible paired comparisons. These comparisons are usually between the new varieties and commercial varieties called control varieties. These designs for test versus control experiments when the test treatments contain homogeneous material, such as mass selection in sugarcane breeding, have received adequate attention. Breeders in sugarcane breeding programmes have shifted from mass selection to family selection where the test treatments are more heterogeneous. This shift has created a need for efficient experimental designs to evaluate hybridized sugarcane families. In this study we evaluate two designs, Augmented Block Design (ABD) and Reinforced Block Incomplete Block Design (RBIBD), which have been proposed for test versus control experiments though their efficiencies in test families versus control experiments are not known. To evaluate the designs, we simulated data for five families and two controls through Monte-Carlo simulation framework. RBIBD and ABD designs were constructed and data fitted by inclusion of block effects and random errors. The fitted data was then analysed and compared the Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). More concrete results in this area could improve the efficiency of sugarcane selection process which would be of great benefit to the stakeholders in the sugar industry.