»Organic Sugarcane Farming«
Sugarcane crop succeeds best in hot sunny tropical areas. The perfect climate for sugarcane is a long warm growing season with high incidence of solar radiation and suitable moisture in the soil.
Areas with good irrigation systems or high rainfall are best suited for sugarcane cultivation. Sugarcane can be raised on diverse soil types ranging from sandy soils to clay though a well drained deep loamy soil is considered ideal for sugarcane cultivation. Sugarcane can be mostly cultivated in temperate zones and productivity is higher in tropical climates. Sugarcane is vegetatively propagated to ensure consistent cultivar characteristics.
Irrigation
Sugarcane needs regular irrigation at different stages. Provide shallow wetting with two to three depth of water at shorter intervals in the initial stage.
Irrigation of sugarcane crops through a drip system with fertilizer nutrient solution could be adopted so that the crop nutrition as well as water requirements can be met together. Application of organic manure and soil maintenance at high fertility level is also important.
Weed management
The competitiveness of sugarcane itself by a large amount of foliage left out in the field after harvesting is sown in between rows manually to control weed.
The application of organic manures as a way of weed control also helps to improve the chemical, physical as well as biological properties of the soil. Organic manure of 20 to 25 tons pr hectare are applied in different forms like compost, farmyard or dung manure.
