Abstract
Sugarcane has pronounced importance to provide sugar for more than half of the global population. World population is enhancing day-by-day and production land is in the worst situation. The cultivated land is diminishing rapidly due to urbanization, road construction, and land deterioration. This crisis demands alternate research to raise crop productivity and maximize the economic returns per unit land for feeding the gigantic population. Sugarcane is a long duration crop and gave late net economic return. Intercropping in sugarcane received much attention and need to properly manage for getting higher net return from same unit area. It is becoming popular among farming community due to resourcefully utilization of land. Intercropping has the potential to inspire the farmers to get maximum economic return per acre per annum. For intercropping, wheat, gram, soybean, and potato were used as an intercrop in September-sown sugarcane. Triple row strip planting geometry of sugarcane with four intercropped (SC + Wheat, SC + Gram, SC + Soybean, and SC + Potato) and check with sole SC was used. Sugarcane was planted during September 2011- 12 and 2012-13 at research area University College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Pakistan. Randomized complete block design with three replications were used. Results showed that number of millable cane, cane diameter; unstripped and stripped cane yield and crop growth rate was significantly higher in sole sugarcane when compared with different intercrop in 2011-12 while trend was same in 2012-13. Cane diameter and un-stripped cane yield were statistically at par of intercrops SC + Soybean and SC + Potato while stripped cane yield of Sole SC and SC + Potato was statistically at par in 2012-13. In both the year of study, intercrops gave higher land equivalent ratio and net return over sole sugarcane planted while sole sugarcane gave maximum benefit cost ratio compared with other intercrops.
Highlights
Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) is the main source of revenue in Pakistan after cotton and rice
In 2011-12, sole SC had significantly 8% higher millable cane (14.3 m−2) compared than SC + Potato while in case of intercrops, SC + Gram gave significantly 3%, 4%, and 5% higher millable cane than SC + Wheat, SC + Soybean and SC + Potato
In both the years of study, significantly higher unstriped cane yield (121.8 t∙ha−1 and 120.2 t∙ha−1) was noted in sole SC compared than SC + Wheat (113.6 t∙ha−1 and 112.8 t∙ha−1)
Summary
Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) is the main source of revenue in Pakistan after cotton and rice. It is a source of providing raw material to many allied industries and employment [1]. Sugarcane contributes 3.2% to the value added products in agriculture and 0.7% to gross domestic production [2]. The area under sugarcane is 1.12 million hectares and total production is 62.4 million tons with an average yield of 55.58 metric ton·ha−1 [2]. Despite a higher yield potential, average stripped cane yield of sugarcane in Pakistan is well below compare than sugarcane producing countries of the world [3]. There are several factors involved in yield stagnation at farmer’s field. The most important cause is conventional planting method/geometry [4]
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