Technology requirement for surgarcane production in the northeast case study: Sugarcane production at Nong Bua Ban village, Nam Phong, Khon Kaen

From the study at regional level, it was found that sugarcane production in the Northeast began around 30-50 years ago, at a small scale in the village. Expansion to large scale industry was noted around 20 years ago. Rapid expansion was only 3-4 years ago. Pioneer planters selected relatively suitable sites for the production. However, later expansion were done in somewhat less suitable resource. Primarily, farmers have to invest at relatively high inputs especially in planting materials and land preparation. From process analysis at village level in Nong Bua Ban, it revealed quite a number of farmer adaptations, namely land selection, land preparation, planting, crop protection, and labour use. Farmer decision when to plant sugarcane depends mainly on predicted rainfall and its distribution. In most cases, farmers would attempt to plant sugarcane as soon as possible right after the last rain, in order to make the best use of available soil moisture, avoid weed problem and soil crusting that could prevent germination (after each rain). Surprisingly, suitable soils of the region is extremely sandy soils with deep compact layer that could retain moisture in the soil profile longer with very low chance of soil compaction. Soils with some clay content or with higher proportion of fine sand particles are less favorble due to higher chances of soil compaction and evaporation losses of soil moisture. The latter requires higher level of soil management to reduce the problems. Common planting practices include 2-3 plowings followed by deep furrowing before laying down of whole plant planting materials, which would then chopped at around 50 cm long. Fertilizers and insecticide (kill termites) were sown in the furrow prior soil covering. Second fertilizer application will be applied in newly-made furrow, just on the day before weeding following the first effective rainfall from February' to 'April.