Influence of soil health management practices on growth and yield of sugarcane plant-Ratoon system under different planting methods

Sugarcane productivity at farm level has been stagnant in India, one of the main reason for this low productivity is the reducing soil health. To improve the productivity a field experiment was conducted for two seasons at Regional Agricultural Research station, Anakapalle (Andhra Pradesh) on sandy loan soils under split split plot design with different planting methods, soil health management practices and nutrient levels. The main plots consist of M1: conventional planting, M2: paired row planting, M3: dual row planting along with four soil health management practices as sub plots (Control, trash mulching + biodecomposer (A & B), green manuring with sunhemp @ 37.5 kg ha-1 seed rate, green manuring with sunhemp @ 25 kg ha-1 seed rate followed by intercropping) and two nutrient levels as sub sub plots (75% RDF + NPK Biofertilizers and 100% RDF). The results revealed the conventional method of planting and paired row method have recorded higher growth and yield of sugarcane and both planting methods were on par with each other and significantly superior over dual row method. While in case of soil health management practices the green manuring with sunhemp @ 25 kg ha-1 seed rate followed by intercropping with greengram have significantly improved the rationing efficiency, plant height, tiller number and finally cane and sugar yield and it was found at a par with green manuring with sunhemp @ 37.5 kg ha-1 seed rate in both plant and ratoon crops, while lowest was recorded under control where no soil health management practices were applied. In case of nutrient levels there was no significant difference between the two treatments. The results showed that planting of sugarcane with soil health management practices under paired row planting going with 75% RDF + NPK biofertilizers have sustained the plant ratoon system.