POTENTIAL AND ACTUAL PRODUCTIVITY OF SUGARCANE AND SUGAR RECOVERY AS LIMITED BY CLIMATIC AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS IN MYANMAR

摘要

Aims: To assess the potential and actual productivity of sugarcane and sugar recovery as limited by climatic and socio-economic factors in Myanmar Methods and Results: Myanmar is blessed with rich natural resources and posseses diverse agro-ecologicalenvironment. Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) is one of the most important industrial crops in Myanmar. Climate directly determines the process of yield formation and the amount of sugar accumulation process. The objective of this study is (i) to assess the potential sugarcane yield under the prevailing agro-climatic conditions in different areas, and (ii) to identify the climatic and socio-economic factors that limit the attainable productivity of sugarcane. Therefore, considerable climatic and socio-economic limits are reviewed based on records of climatic, socio-economic and production data in this paper. The energy conversion efficiency of Myanmar sugarcane cultural system was computed using the productivity data and solar radiation received in each area. Energy conversion efficiency ranged from 0.094 to 0.260% and the highest energy conversion efficiency (0.260%) is associated with highest sugarcane and sugar productivity of the transitional climatic zone. The average actual cane yield of Myanmar wasranging from 39.89 ton/ha (16.14 ton/acre) to 45.05 ton/ha (18.23 ton/ac) from 1997 to 2002. This actual yield was 19.2 % to 21.6% of the estimated potential yield. Climatic suitability analysis of growing regions show that most of the exiting cane areasare ideally located in the suitable climatic regime. However, from the standpoint of moisture availability, all the cane growing regions could be rated as N (not suitable) particularly at the active tillering stage of the cane plant if grown in the normal planting season. This is the most serious constraint causing much reduction in sugarcane production. Significance of Study: To narrow the gap between the attainable and actual yield, crop management practices such as non- input technology of matchingthe climatic suitability and choice of planting season that better utilize the climatic resources available to the industry are suggested. Besides, socio- economic constraints that cause disincentive to growers in cane farming are also identified.