ABSTRACT
Sugarcane is a high water consuming crop, and requires about 2000 mm, that is, about 200 tons of water to produce 1 ton of cane. Sugarcane is the major commercial crop under contract farming (under each sugar factory) and pays rich dividends to the farmers, industries and to the Governments. Further, there is more demand of sugar from all walks of life. Hence there is a need to cultivate sugarcane in large areas with high productivity per unit of water. This will not only create more employment opportunities in the rural areas, but also increase the overall economy of the rural areas
which will in turn help the sugar industry and Government to get more returns by way of revenues and taxes. But to bring more land area under sugarcane, large quantity of water is needed. As mentioned earlier, the available water is almost fully harnessed, and hence to bring more area, better water management practices including practicing the newer technology, namely, micro irrigation are only possible alternative. By introducing micro irrigation with fertigation, it is possible to: Increase the yield potential by three times with the same quantity of water; to save about 45-50% of irrigation water; and increase the productivity of cane by about 40%. When fertilizer is applied through micro irrigation (fertigation), the tonnage increases and about 30% of the fertilizer can also be saved. Unlike the surface method (fl ood or gravity irrigation), the overall water use effi ciency is increased by more than two times (Table 2) by drip irrigation because the daily water need is applied to the root zone. Also evaporation/ conveyance and distribution losses are reduced with drip irrigation. Further, the soil moisture in micro irrigation is always near the fi eld capacity (Fig. 1).
