Prospects of Precision Farming in Sugarcane Agriculture to Harness the Potential Benefits

Abstract

Sugarcane on one side considered important for crop diversification and important for human civilization while on other sugar industry is facing a long term losses in terms of monetary issues. Moreover, farmer is also not clear about which techniques is to adopt for practising the sugarcane cultivation for precision farming. Therefore, range of new sugarcane cultivation technologies pertaining to its cultivars, fertilization, weed control, insect-pest and disease control needs to be invented and recommended to the cane farmers. Precision farming is an approach where inputs are utilised in precise amounts to get increased average yields, compared to traditional cultivation techniques. Adoption of precision agriculture in sugarcane has been slow due to a wide range of uncertainties and conflicting opinions. There is need to reduce cost of cultivation and to improve the canes yield and quality by adopting precision sugarcane techniques. In developing countries like India, Pakistan etc. precision agricultural techniques if adopted, is a powerful tool and should be started with a basic, affordable and effective integration of technologies and practices. Present article aims to review published and unpublished information on precision sugarcane farming must be applied for improving the cane yield and quality so as to improve livelihoods of the cane farmers.