Sugar Commissioner Punjab Dr. Amrik Singh visits various villages under the jurisdiction of Morinda Cooperative Sugar Mill
Morinda, October 14: With the aim of reviewing the sugarcane sowing of Assu season and providing information about the latest farming techniques to the farmers to get more production, Cane Commissioner Punjab Dr. Amrik Singh visited the villages Mundian, Bhagomajra, Makadonna and Gaggon under the jurisdiction of Morinda Cooperative Sugar Mill. On this occasion, Dr. Jaswinder Singh, Assistant Sugarcane Development Officer and Dr. Ravinder Singh, Sugarcane Development Officer were also present.
During this, he reviewed the sugarcane sowing being done by progressive sugarcane farmer Talwinder Singh in village Gaggon and shared information about the technical points necessary to achieve higher yield per hectare.
Talking to the farmers, Cane Commissioner Punjab Dr. Amrik Singh said that sugarcane has been cultivated in about 1.16 lakh hectares of area in Punjab this year, which is about 3,800 hectares more than last year. He said that due to the initiative of the Punjab government, 100 percent payment has been made to the sugarcane farmers through cooperative sugar mills.
He said that sugarcane is generally sown in Punjab during the month of Phagwan in rows spaced two and a half feet apart, but in the jurisdiction of Morinda Cooperative Sugar Mill, sugarcane is sown more during the Assu season. This results in higher sugar recovery, which is the highest in Punjab.
He said that planting sugarcane in rows with a distance of two and a half feet can reduce the yield and sugar yield per acre. Due to this, the income of farmers is affected and the agricultural costs also increase. He appealed to the farmers to sow sugarcane of the Assu season in two and a half to three percent of the total area under sugarcane, so that the yield and sugar yield per acre can be increased.
He said that the work of sowing sugarcane for the dry season should be completed by October 20. Delay in sowing reduces the germination of sugarcane seeds, which directly affects the production.
Giving technical information regarding sugarcane sowing, he said that only the upper third of the sugarcane should be used for seed. It is also necessary to treat the prepared seeds with two eyes with fungicide before sowing. He advised the farmers to adopt wide spacing deep spacing method for higher production, under which sowing is done in single spacing with a distance of 4 to 5 feet between the rows.
He said that this method makes it easier to control weeds, do mechanical tillage, tillage and other agricultural work. With good air and sunlight circulation between the rows, the crop also develops properly. Apart from this, it helps in saving water, better development of roots and strong growth of sugarcane. The possibility of crop falling due to wind and rain also reduces. He said that another important benefit of this method is that mechanical harvesting of sugarcane can be done more properly through harvester.
Giving information about intercropping, Dr. Amrik Singh said that instead of black mustard, yellow mustard should be sown as an intercropping crop in sugarcane crop, because due to its small height, yellow mustard has less effect on the growth of sugarcane crop.
He also advised the farmers to use agrochemicals, especially urea fertilizer, only as per the requirement and as per the advice of agricultural experts. He said that by adopting latest farming techniques, using balanced fertilizers and completing farming work on time, sugarcane production and farmers’ income can be increased.
