In India, S. spontaneum germplasm is maintained at
Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore (Sreenivasan
et al. 2001). The germplasm bank at SBI has collections
from different countries and regions of India. The first
exploration for S. spontaneum was started in the year 1933
by R. Thomas in Bihar region and eight clones were collected
(Amalraj and Balasundaram 2006). Since then more
than 20 explorations have been conducted to collect and
conserve the variability present in this species. However,
northwestern part of India especially Gujarat was the
unexplored regions for S. spontaneum and no accession
exists in the present germplasm. Besides, collections will
be valuable especially from Kachchh region bordering
Pakistan which is drought prone and includes the salt
desert. Extensive industrial development in this region
possesses major threat to extinction of genetic diversity. In
order to conserve this unique diversity of northwestern
India, there was an urgent need to collect and characterize
the germplasm for utilizing in genetic enhancement programme.
This paper describes the collection, characterization
and phenotypic diversity of S. spontaneum
collections from northwestern parts of India.