แปลบทความวิจัยTo evaluate the feasibility of green-cane harvest at
San Carlos Sugar Mill in Ecuador, the agronomic parameters
that may be affected when changing from burned to greencane
harvest were evaluated. Two sites were harvested green
by hand and compared with two adjacent sites that were also
harvested manually but burned. Manual, green-cane harvesting
was found to be not feasible for San Carlos Mill due to the
prohibitive increase in harvesting cost caused by the reduction
in productivity of 68% of the field labourers. Subsequently,
an experiment was undertaken with mechanical harvesters,
comparing six sites that were cut green and another six adjacent
sites that were burned before harvest. In mechanical greencane
harvest, the machine productivity was reduced by 43%
and the trash content in the delivered cane was higher by 38%.
Several advantages of the green-cane harvest were, however,
found. The mass of crop residues that remained in the field
after mechanical harvest was significantly larger under green
harvesting (17.31 t/ha) when compared to the burned treatment
(3.7 t/ha). The contents of P and K in the residues were the
same, but N content in the green harvest residues (0.85%)
was significantly higher than in the burned residues (0.55%).
In addition, after green-cane harvest, the cost of weed control
was reduced by 35% and of irrigation by 10%. While sucrose
recovery was not affected, insufficient data were available to
draw valid conclusions on cane yield. After considering the
impact of all the parameters that were monitored, economic
analysis currently favours burned-cane harvest. Conversely