Enhancing Cane and Sugar Productivity and Profitability Through Relay Intercropping of Autumn Sugarcane with Skipped-Row-Planted Rice in Subtropical Climatic Conditions of India
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- 作者：S. N. Singh ; R. K. Singh ; Ishwar Singh ; Rajendra Kumar
- 关键词：Sugarcane ; Sugar ; Rice ; Planting/cropping systems ; Tillage ; Productivity ; Economic returns
- 刊名：Sugar Tech
- 出版年：2017
- 出版时间：February 2017
- 年：2017
- 卷：19
- 期：1
- 页码：11-16
- 全文大小：
- 刊物主题：Agriculture;
- 出版者：Springer India
- ISSN：0974-0740
- 卷排序：19
文摘
The on-farm trials were conducted for two consecutive seasons of 2007–2009 and 2008–2010 using a participatory approach on cultivators’ fields at Bikamau village in Lucknow District of India’s central Uttar Pradesh to explore the feasibility of planting autumn sugarcane at 90-cm row spacing as a relay intercrop in every fifth skipped row of July-transplanted rice at 18-cm row spacing in late September and/or October for enhanced cane and sugar productivity in the Indian subtropics. The cropping system was compared with rice–spring sugarcane and rice–autumn sugarcane. The on-farm trial results revealed that germination (64.4 %) of cane buds, tillers (328,000/ha) and number (155,000/ha), length (225 cm), diameter (2.4 cm) and weight (752 g) of millable cane were markedly better when autumn sugarcane was planted as a relay intercrop in rice in comparison with other cropping systems. Similarly, this cropping system produced the maximum cane (123.4 t/ha) and sugar (14.51 t/ha) along with sugarcane equivalent yields (149.9 t/ha). In turn, relay intercropping system with maximum cane production efficiency of 291 kg/ha/day fetched the highest economic returns (Rs. 262/ha/day) and benefit-to-cost ratio (1.98). Comparing with rice–spring sugarcane cropping system, relay intercropping of autumn sugarcane in standing rice produced 33 and 35 % more cane and sugar yield, respectively, with 42 % higher returns besides 79 % energy saving. This practice may grossly benefit cane growers and sugar mill owners alike in the Indian subtropics, particularly in rice-growing and low-lying areas of eastern Uttar Pradesh and north Bihar.