Abstract

A field experiment was conducted during spring 2010 and 2011 on silty clay loam soil to assess the impact of irrigation schedules (IW CPE 0.40, 0.60, 0.80 and stages based) and planting methods (flat, pit and trench) on yield attributes, cane and water productivity and economics of sugarcane in plant-ratoon system. The cane yield increased with the increasing number of irrigations but the response was not significant beyond 7 and 3 irrigations, applied at IW CPE 0.60 in plant and ratoon crop, respectively. Though, irrigation scheduled at IW CPE 0.80 produced the maximum cane yield of 116.7 and 71.6 tha-1 in plant and ratoon crop, respectively resulting in maximum water productivity and returns, but was not superior to IWCPE 0.60 ratio.Among the planting methods, both pit and trench were comparable and produced significantly higher cane yield and water productivity than flat planting in both plant and ratoon crops. Trench planting was economically sound as it gave Rs. 43271 and Rs.10748 ha-1 higher net income in plant and Rs. 2092 and Rs. 20447 ha-1 in ratoon crop, respectively than pit and flat planting. The irrigation water use efficiency in pit and trench was higher by 51.2 and 48.8 per cent over flat planting, respectively in plant crop.

Keywords: Spring sugarcane, economics, IW CPE ratio, planting method, yield, water productivity