Technologies Developed

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University > Sugarcane Research Station, Cuddalore > Technologies Developed

Research Activities

Findings for adoption

1) Packages of practices for organic sugarcane cultivation for chewing cane

The organic method of chewing cane cultivation gave the maximum cane length (167.87 cm), cane girth (3.24 cm), number of nodes (24.25), internode length (8.58 cm), individual cane weight (1.87 kg), marketable canes (1,12,210/ha), cane yield (148.56 t/ha), Brix (20.87 %), Pole (17.89 %) and Purity (87.56).

 Packages for organic sugarcane production

  •  Application of 12.5 t/ha of FYM as basal dressing along with 2.4 kg /ha each of Gluconacetobacter TNAU 1 (30,60 and 90 DAS) and Phosphobacteria in 100 kg/ha of FYM along the furrows
  • Application of Trichoderma viride @ 2.5 kg / ha along with 25 kg FYM as basal
  • Application of neem cake @ 125 kg/ha along with sett treatment of Gluconacetobacter TNAU 1 @ 2 kg/ha
  • Application of recommended dose of N (300 kg/ha) through vermicompost as band placement at 30, 60 and 90 DAP for clay loam and 30,60,90 & 120 days for sandy loam soils, respectively
  • Foliar application of Panchagavya @ 3% at monthly intervals from planting up to 5th month
  • Trash mulching along the ridges on 3rd day in clay soils and @ 21 days after planting for sandy loam soil
  • Basal application of silicon solubilizer @ 12.5 kg/ha adjacent to the crop row with 50 kg FYM
  • Installation of pheromone traps @ 20 Nos. / ha for monitoring and trapping of borer pests of sugarcane
  • Release of Trichogramma chilonis from the 4th to 6th month at 15 days interval @ 2.5 cc / ha

2) Nutri-pellet pack fertilisation in Sugarcane

Nutri-pellet pack enriched with TNAU MN mixture

  • Placement of Nutri-pellet packs (NPP) containing 50 % of soil test based NPK and done by the side of chip bud seedling at 5 cm depth while transplanting. Remaining NPPs with 50 % NPK are placed @ 90 DATP at 5 cm depth while earthing up.
  • Sugar industry bio compost (SIBC) is applied at 2 t/ha
  • TNAU micronutrient mixture @ 50 kg/ha is combined with NPK in NPP.

Placement of Nutri-pellet pack @ 4 pellets plant-1 (50% as basal and 50% at 90 DAP) + Sugar industry bio compost (SIBC) @ 2 t ha-1 resulted in increased growth, yield parameters, Commercial Cane Sugar percentage (CCS) and sugar yield with mean cane yield of 128.5 t ha-1 and BCR of 1.85. This technology is suitable for SSI method of planting in areas where fertigation is not feasible through drip irrigation.

3) Integrated best management practices for resource conservation in sugarcane

Best management practices:

  1. Crop geometry: Adoption of 150 cm inter row spacing
  2. Sett treatment with bio-inoculants (Gluconacteobacter diazotrophicus and AM fungi)
  3. Irrigation: sub surface drip fertigation
  4. In situ trash decomposition after cane harvest with TNAU Bio-mineralizer @ 2kg/t
  5. Power weeder (30 &60 DAP), Earthing up (90 DAP), Detrashing (120&210 DAP)

The mechanized cultivation of sugarcane registered higher mean values of millable canes (1,19,500/ha), cane length (210.5 cm), girth (8.05cm), single cane weight (1.72 kg), population of soil microbes (Actinomycetes, Bacteria and Fungi), cane yield (132.5 t/ha), net income (Rs.210136/ha) and BC ratio (2.24) altogether with reduced cost of cultivation compared to manual cultivation of sugarcane.

4) Plant Growth Regulators and Nutrient Solution for Bud chip Technology 

Both macro and micro nutrients along with growth regulators ensures higher bud germination percentage, shoot length, root length and seedling vigour of sugarcane chip budded seedlings.It also favours optimal nutrition availability and accumulation of sucrose content in sugarcane.The foliar spray of macro and micro nutrient solutions weekly twice + soaking of bud chips in 0.01% etherl and 0.1% calcium chloride for 2 hrs, significantly resulted with higher cane yield to the tune of 128.60 t/ha and sugar yield of 12.85 t/ha.

[Note: Macro nutrients- KNO3 + Ca (NO3)2 + MgSO4.7H2O+ KH2PO4 + FeSO4.7H2O and Micro nutrients- H3BO3 + MnCl2 4H2O+ZnCl2 + CaCl2.H2O]

5) Exogenous application of ascorbic acid in mitigating salt stress in sugarcane 

Treatment: Sett treatment with 1mM ascorbic acid + foliar spray of 1mM ascorbic acid at 45th after planting.

The sett treatment of 1mM ascorbic acid + foliar spray of 1mM ascorbic acid at 45th after planting significantly registered maximum values of varied growth parameters of tiller population (128360/ha), millable cane (106010/ha) and physiological parameters of total chlorophyll content (2.1 mg g-1), chlorophyll stability index (85%), Relative water content (87.74%), and proline content (366 μg/g of tissue).   The treatment resulted with the maximum cane yield (117.66 t/ha) and sugar yield (13.24 t/ha).

6) Silicon nutrition on sugarcane crop growth under drought condition

Technology for enhancing cane yield by soil application of silica solublizer @ 12.5 kg + 50kg FYM/ha and sett treatment of 0.5% K2SiO3 alone and 2.5% urea and potash spray on 15 days interval from 60 to 150 DAP has been developed for enhancing cane yield to the tune of 128 t/ha and B:C ratio of 2.25. The application of silicon nutrients as soil application and sett treatment leads to improvement of seedling vigour, enhanced ability to sprout and provide incremental improvement in source and sink strength. The application of nutrient solution during critical growth stages also leads to increase drought tolerance of sugarcane crop.

7) New generation herbicides molecules and its combination on management of creeper weeds in sugarcane

Findings: Post emergence directed spraying of Halosulphuron methyl @ 0.2% on 4 to 5 months combined with detrashing in the 5th and the 7th month effectively controls the creeper weeds such as Ipomea alba, Coccinia grandis, Chinchosia minima and Halothria madraspatnansis to the extent of 50 per cent over hand weeding and has registered significantly more number of millable canes(1,28,500 /ha), no. of nodes/cane (25.3), internodal length (11.8 cm), cane length (203 cm), cane girth(8.43), single cane weight(1.83 kg), cane yield(133.4 t/ha), sugar yield (15.4 t/ha), net return(Rs.2,03,689 /ha) recorded an yield of 133.4 t/ha and BC ratio (2.15).

8) Management of white grub in sugarcane Findings:

  1. i) Soil drenching of imidacloprid 17.8 SL@ 250 ml/ha in 1000 lit. of water in root zone of affected cane effectively reduced white grub population to a tune of 94.59 % over control with higher cane yield (93.72 t ha-1) and BC ratio (2.50)
  2. ii) Soil application of Metarhizium anisopliae 4 X 109 cfu/g @ 5 kg/ha was highly effective in reducing white grub population (66.66%) with highest cane yield of 103.03 t/ha and highest B:C ratio of 2.02.

9) Integrated Management of Sugarcane internode borer

  • Installation of sex pheromone trap @20/acre was effective in mass trapping of moths of internode borer which registered a maximum mean male catch / trap of 7.02 with the lowest mean per cent damage of INB (19.36 %), maximum yield of 100.6 t ha-1 and maximum CB ratio of 1.96.
  • Release of egg parasitoid – Trichogramma chilonis @ 2.5 cc.ha -1 from 4th to 6th months at fortnightly interval along with installation of INB sex pheromone trap for mass trapping @ 20/ha and detrashing at 5th and 7th month is recommended for the management of internode borer of sugarcane.

10) Sett treatment of sugarcane with Arbuscular   Mycorrhizal  fungi and Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus  for improved growth and yield 

Sett treatment of sugarcane with  newer formulation of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza and  Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus (with 75 % N&P ) recorded higher plant growth  and AM root colonization besides enhancing  the cane yield  (113.4 t/ha ), CCS % (8.03)  and sugar yield (13.38 t/ha ) as against uninoculated control +100% RDF with an increase of 3.4%, 0.8% and  9.94% respectively.

(Sett treatment – Freeze dried formulation of Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus and AM was mixed each @ 20 g ha-1  and dispersed  in  1  liter of polymer (50 ml of the polymer was  diluted to 1 litre) and mixed well. The setts were treated with mixture and shade dried for 15 minutes and used for planting).

11) Fermentative Production of value added product Nata de Saccharo

(Kombucha) form sugarcane juice

  • Kombucha: It is a Probiotic functional beverage usually produced from sugary rich fermenting tea broth which is commonly called as Manchurian fermented tea.
  • Kombucha was produced from sugarcane juice enriched with natural colourant extracted from red calyces of Hibiscus sabbdarrifa by pure culture fermentation using non – pathogenic cellulose producing by food grade bacterium and yeasts.
  • Nata de Saccharo, a value added jelly like fermented food product had been developed from Kombucha. The product is rich in edible cellulose of 2.11 g 100g-1 with moisture content of 97.33% possessed apple cider like fruity flavour and sparkling, tarty and sour in taste and was organoleptically highly accepted with hedonic score values of 98%.
  • High GABA producing LAB strains (LABPP 4: 201.34 mM l-1 and LABCA 5: 251.09 mM l-1) were screened and selected. Two Acetobacter strains (ABCA 1, ABPP 2) and yeasts (YCA 3, YPP2) capable of forming Kombucha have been isolated from cashew apple juice and Palmyra fruit juice.
  • Cost of production – Rs.30/ litre and selling price – Rs.40/litre