Assessing Potentiality of Bud Chip Technology on Sugarcane Productivity, Profitability and Sustainability in Real Farming Situations Under South East Coastal Plain Zone of Odisha, India

Abstract

Sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrids) is planted by pieces of cane stalk known as cane setts. This method of conventional sugarcane propagation in India has now become expensive as the cost of seed cane material used and quantity of seed material required for such planting accounts for around 20 % of the total cost of cultivation. An alternative way of using only bud chip holds promise to reduce the huge seed cane material in commercial sugarcane planting. In this context, an on-farm trial in a participatory mode at five farmers’ fields was conducted consecutively during 2013–2014 and 2014–2015 cropping seasons at Ganjam district in Odisha with a view to assess the advantages of bud chip technology of cane cultivation over conventional sugarcane planting. The results of on-farm field trial indicated that sugarcane cultivation by bud chip technology produced cane yield of 106.8 t/ha which was 13.86 % higher than that of conventionally planted cane crop (92 t/ha). The cost of cultivation was Rs. 108,680/ha ($1618.79/ha) in conventional cane cultivation as against Rs. 91,390/ha ($1361.25/ha) under bud chip technology. Bud chip technology produced 32.63 % higher net returns than that obtained from of conventional sugarcane cultivation of Rs. 107,520/ha ($1601.51/ha). Sugarcane planting by bud chip technology has thus proved to be more productive with reduced cost on planting material since it fetched more net returns per unit area and time, and would be a better option for the farmers of south east coastal plain zone of India.