1. Pre- and post-harvest burning was the standard practice to facilitate harvesting and the subsequent ratoon cane establishment; in fact, this is generally true up to the present.
2. Soils were relatively fertile and the need for annual carbon contributions to the soil was not considered as necessary to maintain soil fertility.yields in small farm with trash-mulched canes compared with non-trashed farms.
The internetworking of benefits of trash farming to the soil, farmer, human health, society and the environment is shown in Figure l
The rest of the paper supports the following contentions: