MECHANIZATION OF SUGARCANE FARMING

摘要

Sugarcane is the most important agro industrial crop next to cotton, which is being cultivated in around 4.83 million hectares area in India. The country has produced more than 355 million tonnes of cane at a national average of 70 tonnes per hectare. In the present context of globalisation, ways and means have to be further evolved to produce more sugar per unit area, time and input in order to keep pace with the population growth while preserving the soil and water resources. The challenges in the millennium can be met effectively by way of adopting the appropriate mechanical alternatives not only for increasing the productivity but inculcating cost efficiency in sugarcane production system. The farm mechanisation in the context of sugarcane cultivation should aim at introducing timeliness of operation and reducing human drudgery on one side and improving overall production efficiency on the other. For the purpose a lot of efforts were made at IISR Lucknow to develop various implements for mechanizing sugarcane planting, interculturing, earthing up, harvesting and detrashing operations and for the management of ratoon crops. The present article deals with the same in detail.