AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION

SUGARCANE

Sugarcane (Oos) is a minor garden crop grown in the district and covered only 615 hectares in 1971-72. Of this Sakoli tahsil occupied the highest area of 444 hectares. It is invariably grown as an irrigated crop. Heavy doses of green manures as well as chemical fertilizers are essential.

" Sugarcane is a dwindling crop. At the 30 years' settlement there were 11,000 acres under it, but it has shrunk gradually year by year, till now there are little over 2,000 acres. The reason for this decrease is that which has affected sugarcane throughout the Province. The imported sugar is cheaper than that grown locally. Some attempts have been made, without much success, to introduce improved methods of manufacture. But probably the only thing which would save it would be the establishment of a mill in the immediate neighbourhood of land suitable for sugarcane, where there is permanent irrigation. The best class of sugarcane is practically not grown now. The inferior sort called kathai is grown even at Nawegaon. Compared with the better sorts it gives about half the outturn of unrefined sugar per acre, but the growing cane is hardly sweet to the taste, and therefore does not attract wild animals, and three or even four crops may be taken from the same roots. It is therefore much cheaper to grow. [Central Provinces District Gazetteers, Bhandara District, pp. 86-87.]

Methods of cultivation.—The ploughing of sugarcane land usually begins as soon as the bullocks are free from work in the rice-fields and land is often ploughed six or seven times and the clods are finally reduced to powder by a heavy beam called mahi being dragged over them by three or four yoke of bullocks. The surface is then prepared in squares for irrigation with slight ridges to hold up the water. When the previous year's crop is cut in December or January, the tops of the canes, about 1 foot to 1 foot 3 inches in length, are cut-off and preserved for setting for the new crop. It seems that the crop of the good varieties must be set within a week, but that of kathai does not suffer from being kept fifteen days or even a month. The ground must be well watered for an hour or two before setting the cuttings, which are thinly covered with mud. More irrigation is necessary until the cane begins to sprout and again from time to time according to the soil and necessities of the crop. In about a month, when the shoots are about 9 inches high, the field should be manured, the manure being mixed in and the soil round the roots loosened with a kudali or spud. This manuring is repeated a month later with the best varieties, but in the case of kathai the soil is only loosened and no manure added. The crop must be cleared of grass and weeds a month later or so, and then nothing more is required, except irrigation, until it is ready to cut in the following December or January. The kathai cane is very often allowed to stand for a second or third or even a fourth year. The names given to these crops are fantastic, the first is raoti, the second khuti, the third buti, and the fourth chuti. The deciding factor is the amount of water in the tank; if the owners of the tank reckon that there will be an excess of water over and above that required to irrigate all the new land taken up, they agree to give water to second crops. The better varieties of sugarcane are seldom allowed to stand more than a year.

The following table gives the tahsilwise area under sugarcane and outturn of sugarcane in Bhandara district during 1961-62. 1965-66, 1969-70 and 1971-72: —

TABLE No. 11

AREA AND OUT-TURN OF SUGARCANE IN BHANDARA DISTRICT DURING 1961-62, 1965-66, 1969-70 AND 1971-72.

Note.—Figures for the years 1961-62 and 1965-66 are given for area in acres and for outturn in quintals and for 1969-70 and 1971-72 for area in hectares and for outturn in Metric tonnes.

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