It is well-known fact that,water and fertiliser are the most important inputs to boost the sugarcane production,but due to indiscriminate use of available irrigation water and imbalanced application of fertilisers through the conventional methods,most of the sugarcane growing fertile soils have become saline,resulting in low productivity and nutrient loss.Hence,to correct this situation,there is an urgent need to manage both the resources very efficiently.The only option to efficiently manage water and fertiliser is the adoption of micro-fertigation technology for increasing water use efficiency upto 70-95% and saving in nutrients by 40-50% which is of great importance at national level.By the year 2020 with the ever-increasing population pressure it is necessary to increase total production of sugarcane above 415 million tonnes(mt)from 4.2 million hectare(m ha)area.That means,it is necessary to reach productivity from 70 t/ ha to 100 t/ha with a recovery from 10% to 11%.This challenge could be possible only through adoption of fertigation technology on a wide scale.It is observed that,area under micro-irrigation in sugarcane crop is increasing day by day.However,application of WSF(Water Soluble Fertiliser)through micro-irrigation system is not adopted by many farmers due to lack of knowledge and unavailability of research information on usage of 100% solid soluble fertilisers.Hence,an attempt has been made in this paper to discuss fertigation technology,its advantages,scope and research needs in connection with agronomical evaluation of nutrient requirement related to crop critical growth stages for ensuring efficient use of water and fertiliser for increasing sugarcane productivity.
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