Abstract

Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative (SSI) is a method of sugarcane production which uses less seeds, less water and optimum utilization of fertilizers and land to achieve more yields. Sugarcane bud chip planting/ Sugarcane Single bud planting is the latest technique of sugarcane planting, wherein the bud along with a portion of the nodal region is chipped off and planted in portray with Farm Yard Manure (FYM), soil and sand. This technology is going to be in great demand for successful SSI method of sugarcane cultivation. Package of equipment for Bid chip/ single bud planting of sugarcane was developed by ICAR Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering- Regional Centre, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India in collaboration with ICAR Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. The package of equipment consists of equipment for removal or scooping of bud chip from sugarcane, equipment for single bud cutting, equipment for portray filling for sugarcane bud chips, Protocol for Storage and transportation of sugarcane bud chips, mechanization package for effective fungicidal treatment for sugarcane bud chips, mechanized Planting of sugarcane bud chip settlings grown in portrays and Elevated Hybridization Runways (EHR) Facility. The equipment can be adopted in total or selected equipment/protocol can be used based on the mechanization requirement for Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative (SSI). On an average, there is a savings of about Rs 15000 per ha if the developed mechanization package is used. Apart from this, there will be savings of about 90 percent of the cane material, which can be used for sugar/jaggery industry. Cost economic analysis revealed significant saving in cost and labour over traditional planting of Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative (SSI). The biometric parameters viz., diameter of the cane, cane height, single cane weight, juice content and yield of sugarcane settlings raised using Mechanization package were on par with the manually planted sugarcane settlings. Similarly, the juice quality of sugarcane from planted settling in terms of brix, CCS, sucrose and purity using mechanization package was on par with sugarcane from manual method at the time of harvest.