Ratooning

Abstract

Ratoon cropping is defined as the cultivation of the crop growth after cane harvest, although not necessarily for grain (Francis 1989). This is essentially sequential cropping to give crop intensification in the time dimension and there is no intercrop competition. The word ratoon seems to originate from the Latin ratonus, the Spanish retono or the French rejeton. Ratoon cropping has been practised since antiquity and probably derives from early observations on the regrowth of grasses after cutting (Plucknett et al. 1970). The early record of ratooning in sugarcane dates from 1883 when an unknown Hawaiian farmer stated that ‘only good ratoons pay’, but the earliest ratoons seem to have been started in the Fujian province of eastern China in 1727.