Farmers' practices and yield response of sugarcane in Jhang and Sargodha districts, Pakistan

A field survey of sugarcane growing areas of Jhang and Sargodha Districts, Pakistan was conducted during 2008 to find out the yield gaps occurred in sugarcane due to farmers' production practices. For this purpose 63 farmers from district Jhang and 48 from district Sargodha were interviewed regarding production practices and inputs used for sugarcane cultivation. It was found that in district Jhang and Sargodha 17.5 and 39.6 % of the farmers respectively, sown their crop in September-October, and 25.4 and 20.8 % of crops were ratoon, whereas, rest of the farmers planted sugarcane during February-March. In Jhang District, 40% of the farmers used 7.5-10 bags of urea per ha, 62 % used 2.5-5 bags of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) per hectare, and only 11% farmers used potassium (K2SO4) fertilizers. In Sargodha District, 27% of the farmers used 7.5-10 bags of urea per ha, 77 % farmers used 2.5-5 bags of DAP per ha, and only 10 % farmers used potassium fertilizers. Other farmers used fertilizers for sugarcane at lower rates. Thirty two percent of the farmers in Jhang and 31 % of the farmers in Sargodha used farmyard manure (FYM). Fifty one percent of the farmers in Jhang practiced optimum (16-20) irrigation, whereas in Sargodha only 29 % of the farmers applied optimum irrigation. Positive effect of urea and DAP fertilizers and number of irrigations was observed on cane yield. The economic analysis of the farmers' data reflected that the best rate of return was found for the farmers practicing application of 14-15 irrigations, 4.5 bags per ha of urea, 3.7 bags per ha of DAP and 0.8 bags per ha of potash in Sargodha District. In Jhang District the best rate of return and yield was found for the farmers practicing application of 17-20 irrigations, 6.2 bags per ha of urea, 5.6 bags per ha of DAP and 1.2 bags per ha of potash. Hence cane cultivation needs site specific agronomic practices and require further research to advise specific site recommendations.