Date:21/05/2007 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/05/21/stories/2007052101521500.htm

Back TNAU meet on sugarcane

Our Bureau

Coimbatore, May 20

Fertiliser trials in fields to enhance yield and intercropping are among the package of suggestions handed out to farm scientists engaged in sugarcane research at a meet in the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU). The meeting, held early this week and presided over by the TNAU Vice-Chancellor, was to consider the need to evolve an alternative technology for sugarcane crop, comprising revised fertiliser schedules, mechanisation, and less-expensive crop protection practices to make farming cost effective. Presently, farmers incur a production cost of Rs 85,000, out of the expected gross income of Rs 1.10 lakh per hectare of sugarcane cultivated, making it an input-intensive crop. The university plans to hold a seminar on ethanol production from sugarcane to facilitate evolving a suitable policy framework.