Currently sugarcane crop yields are low and its area under cultivation is declining due to its high cost of cultivation and continuous reduction in announcing less remunerative prices to the farmers by the policy makers. Of late the area under this crop is continuously declining in Telangana state of India. In order to facilitate the farmers to get lucrative prices and to increase area under this crop, sugarcane yields have to be enhanced more than 250 t/ha. The routine practices of growing sugarcane in this area is with the row spacing of 90 cm with end to end overlapping three budded setts, But seed cane requirement and overall cost of cultivation with this practice is very high, which became a major cause for declining cultivation area under this crop. Hence, it is necessary to decrease the seed cane requirement by enhancing the spacing to 150 cm X 60 cm distance. On the other hand planting of two single budded setts from selected healthy canes, (weighing not less than 50 grams) at each hill was found to be more effective in terms of higher tiller production and better utilization of nutrients and light due to wider spacing between rows besides decreasing seed rate to three-fourth of its original 3 budded setts. | Growth and yield response of sugarcane varieties to wider spacing
