The National Hybridization Garden (NHG) is a facility at Coimbatore established in 1974 as a common platform for sugarcane breeders of different AICRP (All India Coordinated Research Project) centres to directly involve them in parental selection and crossing. It is a common breeding plot, where all the required parental clones as suggested by the concerned centres, well in advance, are planted every year. Necessary support is provided to make the crosses as desired by them. The dried fluff is collected at the end of the flowering season, cleaned and dispatched to the respective centres after the germination test. Annually around 600 parental clones are planted and maintained. The clones which have not been in use for previous three years are excluded from the garden. New parental clones decided by the centres are included after having quarantined. The Elevated Hybridization Runways installed in the field improves the efficiency of the crossing programme by simplifying the pollen collection and dusting operations. The scientists from the participating centres themselves could do the collection of male spikelets, effecting pollinations and collection of matured fluff, with limited assistance from other workers.

In 2011-12, 649 parental clones were maintained of which 507 clones flowered. A total of 552 bi-parental experimental crosses were made for 24 participating centers. Maximum number of crosses were made by North West Zone (206), followed by Peninsular Zone (165), North Central Zone (124) and East Coast Zone (68). Zonal crosses were made for all the zones viz., Peninsular Zone (14), East Coast Zone (11), North West Zone (9), and North Central and North East Zones (15). A poly cross nursery was planted separately for tropical region with 13 female and eight male parents and for subtropical region with eight female and eight male parents. Open pollinated fluff (general collection or GC) from 312 parents was also collected for distribution to participating centres.