Water-efficient No-till sugar cane cultivation with alternate row irrigation

Suresh Desai is a founding member of an Organic Farmers Club in Belgaum District of Karnataka, India. It has 400 members, some of whom are already growing crops organically, while others are in the process of shifting to organic farming.

Since completing his matriculation, Suresh has been caring for the family property of 4.5 hectares, in an area where today sugar cane is primarily grown. For nearly a decade Suresh, as the manager of the farm, followed conventional practices relying on external inputs in the form of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Just like most of the other farmers near Belgaum, he grew sugar cane, a high water-demanding cash crop, and tobacco.

Conventionally, sugar cane is grown in three-year cycles. A sugar cane crop takes about 18 months to mature, it is then harvested and a ratoon crop is left to grow. After cutting the canes, a lot of trash remains in the fields. Some of this is used as a roofing material, while the rest is burnt, usually at night. Burning can damage the roots, but there is a good initial re-growth of the ratoon crop since the nutrients in the trash become soluble by burning. The burning also helps in pest control, ensuring that pest problems of the standing crop do not contaminate future cops. However, what most farmers do not realise is that most of the nutrients contained in the ashes are leached out with the first irrigation, and as the water demand of the sugar cane crop is high (recommendations are that it receives 100 percent water cover, effectively flooding the crop), this can be a serious problem. After the harvest of the ratoon crop, the field is left fallow until the next planting cycle which may be after six months or a year.

Suresh's yields for sugar cane were 75 to 90 tonnes a hectare, very much like that of his neighbours. However, Suresh started having second thoughts as he noticed a process of degradation unfolding in his fields. The crops became increasingly affected by pests and disease, the soil gradually lost its native fertility and structure, and water supplies were dwindling. In short, the family property was on the decline.

What most farmers do not realise is that most of the nutrients contained in the ashes are leached out with the first irrigation.

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