67 Cones
 

• MECHANIZED SUGAR CANE PLANTING

In times of lowering world trade barriers and competition for resources, in order to increase sugar cane profit it is necessary to lower production costs and increase production yield.

In order to achieve both objectives, a new system of mechanized sugar cane planting has been developed. The new planting system involves extraction of cuttings from the stalk, which are then planted in grow trays designed exclusively for sugar cane plantings. The cuttings are planted in a mixture of soil and sugar cane broth or broth with sugar cane ash. Before being planted, the cuttings are treated with hot water to kill any disease-causing bacteria, and then with a fungicidal treatment. After 50 days the young sugar cane plants are ready to be moved, still in the growing trays, to the field, where they are transplanted using a mechanical planter.

This method has considerable advantages over the traditional system: it requires less planting material and less labor, and reduces planting costs per hectare by an estimated 25%. It also requires less plant nursery area; with older methods a sugar plantation of 2000 hectares needs about 200 hectares reserved for a plant nursery, but with the newer method (using 80 centimeters between plants and 1.5 meters between rows) the nursery size is only a tenth as large, releasing 180 hectares for production instead of nursery use. Freeing up these 180 hectares of plantation can yield 24,000 tons of additional sugar cane per year.