Abstract

As sugarcane is one of the largest raw material sources for the sugar industries, an attempt was made with an objective to study the resource efficiency of the crop in Tamil Nadu. It was observed that the total cost of cultivation of sugarcane worked out to be Rs.116347 per ha. The operational cost accounted for 80.62 per cent of the total cost. The cost of human labour alone accounted for 36.30 per cent of the total operational cost as it involved labour intensive operations like earthingup, trashing and de-trashing, cutting of canes, and transport of cane to sugar factory. Production function analysis revealed that labour hours, organic manure and fertilizers applied, and the value of plant Protection chemicals were the significant variables that influenced the productivity of sugarcane. The net income realized from sugarcane was Rs.42395 per ha and it may be concluded that the cultivation of sugarcane is a more profitable and there exists a huge scope for increasing the productivity by efficiently managing all these resources.

Keywords: Resource Use Efficiency, Sugarcane, Production function.