Introduction
Sugarcane is a commercial crop cultivated in India since time immemorial. One of the notable characteristics of sugarcane cultivation in the country is its inherent instability. The cane production in the country is dependent on rainfall and drought spells appearing in regular intervals leading to wide fluctuations in the cane area and production. Due to extremely favorable weather conditions sugarcane and sugar production reaches a high level and subsequently comes down with a typical surplus and deficit cycle. The heat of the crisis in sugar industry has a telling impact on the cane grower’s economy by way of cane price stagnations, delayed payments and curtailment of incentives who are already suffering due to increasing costs of inputs and laborers besides declining yields and net returns (Nagendran 2009). Sugarcane agriculture can be sustained only if profitability can be ensured through reduction of cost of cultivation and improving productivity per unit area. This is possible only through technological interventions and appropriate extension strategies (Nair 2009). As such there are quite a few technologies in sugarcane that can minimize the cost of cultivation with increased returns. This includes use of biofertilizers, bud chip settlings, wide row spacing etc. (Rajula et al. 2007). Cultivation of sugarcane at a row spacing of 150 cm or more is called as wider row planting technique. Planting sugarcane in wide row spacing is a technology that can be practiced by farmers by incurring no additional cost. Rather, there would be a considerable saving in sett material. Shunmugasundaram and Venugopal (1979) after reviewing the sugarcane spacing trials in India concluded that the optimum row spacing for different locations varied from 60 to 105 cm. Generally, inter row distance depends on tillering capacity of the variety, time of planting, fertility status of the soil and stress conditions like drought etc. Closer row spacings are adopted under low soil fertility status, shy tillering varieties, delayed planting and drought conditions. While closer row spacing of 75–100 cm is common in India, wider spacing is adopted in countries like Australia, Brazil, Mauritius and South Africa (Blackburn 1984). In tropical states, wide row spacing is become popular in areas with labour shortage. There are scientific studies conducted in research stations, which state that wide row spacing leads to higher yield and net returns and reduced cost of cultivation. However, the acceptance of the technology by all the cane growers is still a reservation; the present study attempts to find the same. The overriding objectives of the study are to study the profile of farmers growing sugarcane in wider row spacing, to study the effect of wider row on cane yield, to study the advantages of wider row spacing, to analyze the constraints in wider row spacing and to work out the economics of wider row spacing compared with narrow row spacing.
แนะนำSugarcane is a commercial crop cultivated in India since time immemorial. One of the notable characteristics of sugarcane cultivation in the country is its inherent instability. The cane production in the country is dependent on rainfall and drought spells appearing in regular intervals leading to wide fluctuations in the cane area and production. Due to extremely favorable weather conditions sugarcane and sugar production reaches a high level and subsequently comes down with a typical surplus and deficit cycle. The heat of the crisis in sugar industry has a telling impact on the cane grower’s economy by way of cane price stagnations, delayed payments and curtailment of incentives who are already suffering due to increasing costs of inputs and laborers besides declining yields and net returns (Nagendran 2009). Sugarcane agriculture can be sustained only if profitability can be ensured through reduction of cost of cultivation and improving productivity per unit area. This is possible only through technological interventions and appropriate extension strategies (Nair 2009). As such there are quite a few technologies in sugarcane that can minimize the cost of cultivation with increased returns. This includes use of biofertilizers, bud chip settlings, wide row spacing etc. (Rajula et al. 2007). Cultivation of sugarcane at a row spacing of 150 cm or more is called as wider row planting technique. Planting sugarcane in wide row spacing is a technology that can be practiced by farmers by incurring no additional cost. Rather, there would be a considerable saving in sett material. Shunmugasundaram and Venugopal (1979) after reviewing the sugarcane spacing trials in India concluded that the optimum row spacing for different locations varied from 60 to 105 cm. Generally, inter row distance depends on tillering capacity of the variety, time of planting, fertility status of the soil and stress conditions like drought etc. Closer row spacings are adopted under low soil fertility status, shy tillering varieties, delayed planting and drought conditions. While closer row spacing of 75–100 cm is common in India, wider spacing is adopted in countries like Australia, Brazil, Mauritius and South Africa (Blackburn 1984). In tropical states, wide row spacing is become popular in areas with labour shortage. There are scientific studies conducted in research stations, which state that wide row spacing leads to higher yield and net returns and reduced cost of cultivation. However, the acceptance of the technology by all the cane growers is still a reservation; the present study attempts to find the same. The overriding objectives of the study are to study the profile of farmers growing sugarcane in wider row spacing, to study the effect of wider row on cane yield, to study the advantages of wider row spacing, to analyze the constraints in wider row spacing and to work out the economics of wider row spacing compared with narrow row spacing.
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