Abstract
Sugarcane and potato are the two major cash crops cultivated in the Indo-Gangetic plains of South Asia. Growing potato as intercrop with sugarcane has a synergistic effect on sugarcane, resulting in increased economic returns to farmers. In order to mechanise simultaneous planting of sugarcane and potato for intercropping, a new planting machinery named as sugarcane-cum-potato planter was designed and developed at ICAR-Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow, India. It was equipped with furrowers for opening of furrow and ridge making in between furrows, sett cutting unit for cane planting, potato seed tuber metering mechanism for potato planting, covering unit to cover planted sugarcane setts and potato and insecticide application unit. The designed equipment planted two rows of sugarcane in furrows and two rows of potato on ridges simultaneously in single pass. Picking and dropping of seed potato were automatic, whereas sugarcane seed stalk feeding for sett cutting was manual. Field testing of the developed planter was conducted at IISR farm in sandy loam soil. The effective field capacity of planter was 0.127 ha h−1. Average soil cover on sugarcane setts was 45 mm. Average depth of seed potato tuber placement on the ridges was 40 mm, and average tuber to tuber spacing was 192 mm. Developed machine-planted sugarcane at furrow spacing of 750 mm with average overlapping of 68 mm between the setts. The cost of planting operation with developed equipment was rupees 3160 ha−1 as against rupees 13,600 ha−1 in conventional planting. Saving in cost of planting operation was about 76% and labour about 90% with the developed planter as compared to conventional planting. Irrigation water use efficiency, yield attributes and total yield increased significantly in potato–sugarcane intercropping as compared to relay cropping of potato and sugarcane. Benefit/cost ratio in mechanised intercropping of potato and sugarcane with the developed planter was 2.57:1 followed by conventional manual intercropping (2.26:1) and manual potato–sugarcane relay cropping (1.84:1).
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anon. 1981. Indian standard test code for potato planters. IS9856-1981. New Delhi: Indian Standard Institution.
Anon. 1983. RNAM test codes and procedures for farm machinery. Technical series No. 12.
Anon. 2016. India the second largest potato producer in the world after China. http://www.face2news.com/news/20040-first-horticulture-university-in-haryana-at-karnal-radha-mohan-singh-lays-foundation-stone-.aspx. Accessed on 11 Aug 2016.
Buitenwerf, H., W.B. Hoogmoed, P. Lerink, and J. Müller. 2006. Assessment of the behaviour of potatoes in a cup-belt planter. Biosystems Engineering 95 (1): 35–41.
Cadersa, Y., K. Wong Yen, and N. Govinden. 2001. Tropical potato clones with larger canopies do not affect the growth, yield and yield components of intercropped sugar cane. African Crop Science Journal 9 (1): 59–66.
Dafa’allah, A.M., and M.A. Humiedia. 1991. Performance evaluation of sugarcane planter. Journal of King Saud University, Agricultural Sciences 3 (1): 5–14.
Govinden, N. 1990. Intercropping of sugar-cane with potato in mauritius: A successful cropping system. Field Crops Research 25 (1–2): 99–110.
Imam, S.A., A.H.M. DelwarHossain, L.C. Sikka, and D.J. Midmore. 1990. Agronomic management of potato/sugarcane intercropping and its economic implications. Field Crops Research 25 (1–2): 111–122.
Mandal, S.K., and P.K. Maji. 2008. Design refinement of 2 row tractor mounted sugarcane cutter planter. Agricultural Engineering International. http://cigrjournal.org/index.php/Ejounral/article/viewFile/1014/1007.
Singh, A.K., and P.R. Singh. 2016. Development of a tractor operated sugarcane cutter planter for mechanization of sugarcane planting in deep furrows. Sugar Tech. doi:10.1007/s12355-016-0471-9.
Singh, J., A.K. Singh, M.P. Sharma, P.R. Singh, and A.C. Srivastava. 2011. Mechanization of sugarcane cultivation in india. Sugar Tech 13 (4): 310–314.
Singh, R.D., and H.M. Singh. 2006. Field evaluation of tractor mounted two-row semi-automatic belt type potato planter ridger. Potato Journal 33 (1–2): 81–84.
Yadav, R.N.S., S. Yadav, and R.K. Tejra. 2003. Labour saving and cost reduction machinery for sugarcane cultivation. Sugar Tech 5 (1): 7–10.
Acknowledgements
Authors are thankful to the technical officials of Division of Agricultural Engineering for fabrication of different components, their assembly in the workshop and field testing. We also acknowledge the needful help provided by fellow scientists of the Division of Agricultural Engineering and financial help provided by the institute.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gupta, R., Singh, P.R. & Singh, A.K. Development of Sugarcane-cum-Potato Planter for Mechanisation of Simultaneous Planting of Sugarcane and Potato. Sugar Tech 19, 517–525 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12355-016-0504-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12355-016-0504-4