EFFECT OF SETT TYPES AND PRE-PLANTING TREATMENTS ON YIELD COMPONENTS AND YIELD OF SUGACANE (Saccharum officinarum L.), AT FINCHAA SUGAR ESTATE,ETHIOPIA.

The sett type used and untreated seed cane are ultimately affecting sugarcane yield in Ethiopian sugar industry, particularly, in Finchaa sugar estate. Therefore, this work was decided to deal with the objective of to evaluate suitable sett type and seed cane treatment for yield and yield related parameters of N-14 sugarcane variety. The dominant and high yielding commercial sugarcane varieties namely N-14 was used as a planting material at Finchaa Sugarcane Plantation during 2022/2023. The planting material consists of a total twelve treatments: four types of buds/setts (one bud sett (S1), two bud setts (S2), three bud setts (S3) and whole stalks (S4)) and; three chemically treated seed sett car Bumper (C1) , Noble (C2) for 3 to 5 minutes and without sett treatment (C0). The experiment was laid in randomized complete block design with three replications. The analysis of variance revealed that highly significant differences ( ≤ 0.01) among the treatments for the tiller count at 5month (TL5), cane height (CH), weight of single stalk (WSS), number of millable cane (NMC), cane yield (CY) and sugar yield (SY) indicating that these parameters were affected by planting of different types of sett and pre-planting treatments on sugarcane seeds of N-14 variety. The highest tiller count was recorded by T7 followed by T8 where as T1was observed with the least tiller counts as compared to the others.The highest number of millable cane and densely populated treatment was recorded by T7 by exceeding the conventional sett planting methods called T8. The inferior plant population was observed in T2 (one bud setts treated by Noble and T1 (one bud setts treated by Bumper showing the survival of the tillers and its capability for reaching the status of millable cane was considerably lower in this treatment. Three budded sett of N-14 variety treated by Bumper (T7) exceeds the control (T8) by 18.77 % of cane yield. Again T7 had a sugar yield advantage than T1, T5, T6 and T9 by 46.5%, 18.06%, 26.37% and 24.62% respectively, consequently is very advised at Finchaa condition to harvest surplus cane yield and sugar yield.