Vol. 12, Special Issue 8 (2023)

Author(s):
RL Kadam, RD Ahire, FR Tadavi and RK Behera

Abstract:
Sugarcane plays a crucial role in various aspects of daily life and industry, offering nutritional and economic benefits to countries. Consequently, ensuring its production becomes a prime consideration. The current study aims to enhance sugarcane production by identifying and addressing important constraints faced by farmers. For this purpose, an ex-post facto research design was employed. The study revealed several significant constraints encountered during the adoption of sustainable cultivation practices in sugarcane. These included high costs of complex fertilizers, labor charges, inadequate availability of required earthworm quantity, and the absence of recovery-based pricing. In response, farmers offered valuable suggestions, such as providing credit at lower interest rates and on time, reducing the cost of complex fertilizers, and conducting demonstrations or on-farm testing of different sustainable cultivation practices to showcase their effectiveness. The findings of this paper hold potential to contribute to the nation's growth and benefit policy-makers in making informed decisions to enhance the production and sustainability of sugarcane farming.