Abstract: The capacity of the sugarcane plant to respond to Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) is associated with both the efficiency of the bacterial strain and the capacity of the plant to respond to inoculation. For this reason, the appropriate selection of both the bacterial strain and the sugarcane genotype is required for generating optimal results from PGPR inoculations. To address this issue, this study sought to evaluate the response of 54 sugarcane families to inoculation with Azospirillum brasilense strains. In particular, four months after germination, 54 families from crosses between clones of sugarcane were treated either with an inoculant named Triazo, which was composed of a mixture of the Abv5, Abv6 and Abv7 strains of A. brasilense, or with the IC26 strain of A. brasilense. The treated plants were then planted in fields. These plants were assessed 14 months after they had been planted on the basis of various productivity parameters. Significant differences among the inoculants were observed for stalk length, stalk diameter and Brix. Significant interactions between the families and bacteria occurred with respect to stalk diameter and Brix; the interaction coefficients could have either positive (0.7272 for Brix and 0.4061 for stalk diameter) or negative (-0.5514 for Brix and -0.1858 for stalk diameter) values, depending on the family and the inoculant that were considered. Therefore, the inoculation of the seedling in the first phase of selection is recommended for a sugarcane breeding program that seeks to select genotypes with better responses to PGPR inoculation.