Call for Papers

 

Call for Papers

ICAR - SUGARCANE BREEDING INSTITUTE

COIMBATORE 641 007

Call for Papers : 51st  Sugarcane R&D Workshop of Tamil Nadu & Puducherry 

ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute organizes Webinar

Webinar on ‘Combating post COVID-19 challenges in the sugarcane sector through appropriate technologies and approaches’

The ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore organized a webinar on ‘Combating post-COVID-19 challenges in the sugarcane sector through appropriate technologies and approaches’ on 25 June 2020.

Inaugurating the webinar, Smt. Reeta Harish Thakkar IAS, Commissioner of Sugar, Government of Tamil Nadu and Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Sugar Corporation, said that this webinar is a welcome initiative from ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute. Since the day lockdown was announced in March, many sugar factories in the state have been operating with only 30-40% of capacity utilization. The Government of Tamil Nadu has been taking several steps to revive the sugar sector such as providing transport subsidy @ Rs.100/ton of cane, disbursement of NADP subsidy amount and extending the production subsidy and micro-irrigation scheme under PMKSY (Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana) for 2020-21 as well.

Dr Bakshi Ram, Director of ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute in his opening remarks remarked that both the sugarcane farmers and the sugar mills have been suffering during the COVID-19 crisis. Mentioning that this webinar has been structured in such a way that the sharing of knowledge would help in overcoming the post pandemic challenges; he informed that the webinar was being held to cover the following topics:

• Challenges of Human Resource Management in Sugarcane Agriculture and Sugar Industry: Issues such as manpower requirements for cane cultivation and for a sugar factory, decreasing trend of agricultural labour availability, challenges of agricultural workforce during COVID-19, inter-state movement of farm labour, risk mitigation strategies and modification of the work-flow process to suit the present conditions were emphasized.
• Sugarcane agriculture: Combating challenges in the post-COVID-19 scenario – Assumptions pertaining to the post COVID-19 scenario, Short-term and long-term impacts and mitigation strategies at the research and extension levels were discussed.
• Responding to mechanization challenges  in the post-pandemic period: Issues such as acute scarcity of farm labour, escalating cane harvest charges, reduction in cost of cultivation due to mechanization, merits of wider row spacing, varietal preferences, weed management, intercropping issues, custom-hiring of implements and promoting entrepreneur models were highlighted.
• Sugar market : Challenges and responses post-COVID-19: Global, National and state-level sugar production, sugar consumption pattern, Revenue sharing formula Vs Fair and remunerative price and  impact of COVID-19 on the sugar market were discussed.
• Challenges and opportunities for Micro-irrigation in sugarcane: Issues such as improving cane yield and quality in micro-irrigated plots, persisting lack of adoption among farmers, assistance from the government-side, lack of awareness on irrigation scheduling and problems in system maintenance were shared.
• Emerging sugarcane pests and diseases: Solutions for Pokkah boeng disease and for pests in sugarcane such as leaf mite, mealy bug and white grub were discussed.

The distinguished speakers at the webinar were Shri M Silvester, Kothari Sugars and Chemicals Ltd., Shri S.J. Lakshman, EID Parry (I) Ltd., Shri K Nagendran, Sugarcane specialist, Shri R Varadarajan, Rajshree Sugars & Chemicals Ltd., Shri N Sezhian, Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd. and Dr R Viswanathan, ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute.

Over 660 participants from 19 states of the country and 5 foreign countries had registered and participated. The webinar was held for over five hours and was moderated by Dr D Puthira Prathap, Principal Scientist of ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute.

The final event of the webinar was the Q&A session.  Over 100 questions on the post COVID-19 issues pertaining to the sugarcane sector were posed by the participants out of which a few were answered by each speaker during the session. A compilation of the complete Q&As would be carried out for wider distribution among the participants.

While proposing a vote of thanks from the industry side to the Institute, Shri S.J. Lakshman appreciated the efforts of the ICAR-SBI in providing solutions to various problems faced by the industry and the farmers. He specially mentioned about the two recent initiatives of the institute viz. quality seed production under farmers participatory programme and releasing the short duration sugarcane variety Co 11015, which will help the sugar industry in the long run.

==============================================

Launch of Online Journal of Sugarcane Research

The President, office bearers and members of

Society of Sugarcane Research and Development (SSRD),

Coimbatore

Cordially invite you to the

Launch function of

Online Journal of Sugarcane Research

On Friday, October 4, 2019 at 10.00 hrs.

Venue : ICAR-SBI Auditorium, Coimbatore

Dr. Bakshi Ram

President, SSRD & Director, ICAR-SBI

Call for Papers : Golden Jubilee Sugarcane R&D Workshop of TN & Puducherry

Call for Papers

ICAR - SUGARCANE BREEDING INSTITUTE

COIMBATORE 641 007

Call for Papers : Golden Jubilee Sugarcane R&D Workshop of Tamil Nadu & Puducherry  - Chennai; 

18-19 October 2019

GENERAL CIRCULAR - I

Dear Sir/Ma’am,

               

                The 50^th Sugarcane Research & Development Workshop [Golden Jubilee] of Tamil Nadu & Puducherry would be held during October 18-19, 2019 (Tentative) at Chennai to discuss the following topics. The exact venue will be intimated shortly.

                                                                                                                                    

i.                     Review of action taken on the recommendations of the previous workshop

ii.                   Wide row planting with Intercropping

iii.                 Review of Sugarcane mechanization initiatives including mechanical harvesting

iv.                 Current varietal position and Performance of new sugarcane varieties

v.                   All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Sugarcane, Co-ordinated agronomic experiments/Adaptive Research Trial and SBI-SISMA/SBI-TNCSF Varietal trials

vi.                 Sugarcane seed nursery programme

As was done during the previous year, the "Dr. N. Mahalingam Memorial Lecture" would be delivered and prizes would be awarded for best presentations by the factory personnel, during the workshop.

‘Cheyyar Co-op. Sugar Mills ltd., Anakkavoor, would be hosting the Workshop. You are cordially invited to attend this Workshop along with your colleagues and participate in the deliberations. You may please prepare the manuscripts of the papers covering these topics as per the guidelines enclosed and send the same to the undersigned by September 27, 2019 . The guidelines can also be downloaded from http://sugarcane.res.in or http://caneinfo.icar.gov.in

As we are planning to bring out the papers presented at the workshop in printed form (Compendium of Research Articles & Status Papers; ISSN: 0973-8185), your papers may be prepared and sent to the undersigned in time. The papers (prepared using MS Word 2003) can be sent by email to sbiextension@yahoo.com. Presentations, created in Microsoft PowerPoint 2003/2007 format (.ppt/.pptx), should fit within the allotted time in the Technical sessions.

With best regards,

Yours sincerely,

DIRECTOR, ICAR-SUGARCANE BREEDING INSTITUTE

_________________________________________________________________

Telephone Nos.: Office:  EPBX: 0422- 2472621 Extn : 238, 2472986 (Thro'PA) Fax: 0422-2472923 

E-mail: sbiextension@yahoo.com

GUIDELINES FOR PREPARING PAPERS

Topic  i : Review of action taken on the recommendations of the previous workshop

            Sugar factories/Department of Sugar/Department of Agriculture and research institutions in the region are requested to furnish the details of action taken on the recommendations made in the previous workshop as per the details given hereunder:

S. No	Recommendation/Action point	Action taken
	As most of the sugar mills had expressed water as the major constraint, all the factories should increase the area under micro irrigation to sustain sugarcane productivity.
	Sugar factory personnel need to monitor settling transplanting, micro irrigation, wide row planting and soil test based fertilizer application in the farmers’ fields & identify and document the problems being faced by the farmers in adoption.
	In order to facilitate large-scale adoption of sugarcane mechanization, all the factories should strive to achieve at least 50 % of cane area to be planted under wide row spacing 4 ft and 5 ft during the ensuing planting season.
	The sugar factories should mobilize adequate number of power tillers, mini tractors, disc harrows and trash shredders to ensure 100 % coverage of mechanized inter cultural operations in all the cane fields to be covered under wider row spacing during the ensuing  season.
	In order to enable the farmers to derive the benefits of sugarcane mechanization including mechanical harvesting, the factories who have not so far acquired any harvester machine either by the mills themselves or by the entrepreneurs should plan to cover at least 500 acres under wider row cane planting during the forthcoming season and make available 15,000 MT of cane for harvesting through machine. The sugar mills also should plan to acquire one harvester machine through entrepreneur.
	The sugar mills from all the sectors should assess their requirements of farm implements and machinery like power tillers, mini tractors, trash shredders, trash incorporators, disc harrows etc., and place their indents for getting allotment of NADP subsidy through respective Agrl. Engineering department in their district. The Chief cane development officer, TASCO may coordinate with all the sugar mills to get the budget allotment through the office of Commissioner of sugar.
	As the performance of Co 0212 has been found to be promising at Sakthi sugars, Appakudal, the sugar factories could conduct BMT at monthly intervals and data reported for the benefit of other factories
	Factories are urged not to cultivate too many varieties in their area
	Any clone sent out of the research stations in Tamil Nadu for testing purpose should have Co as prefix to C or G or Si for uniformity.
	Factories should ensure participation in the interactive meets organized by ICAR-SBI under the quality seed supply programme
	Systematic adoption of TC plantlets should be taken up by the factories

Topic  ii:  Wide row planting with Intercropping

            Area covered under wide row spacing in the factory area - extent of adoption of wide row spacing by farmers - yield improvement/reduction than normal row spacing - performance of varieties in 90, 120, 150 cm spacing or above - merits and demerits of wide row spacing - package of practices used for wider row spaced sugarcane - cost effectiveness of wide row spacing compared to normal row spacing – Area and percentage under wide row spacing with intercropping (Please provide in tabular form). Intercrops commonly being used in your factory area – selection criteria used for intercrops –Package of practices - Planting methods including spacing – effect of intercropping on tillering - Water management measures - labour requirement – Input use-Plant protection measures used – Time of harvest & harvesting techniques -  ease of mechanization - average cane yield levels and net returns obtained with different intercrops– best combination observed in your factory area - advantages of wide row planting with intercropping as perceived by cane development personnel and farmers of your factory area– demerits/problems in adopting wide row planting with intercropping - constraints in adoption – promotional efforts taken up (like demonstrations) for increasing area under wide row planting with intercropping- cases of successful farmers who had taken up wide row planting along with intercropping.

S.No.	System (Under wide row planting)	Coverage (ha.)	Average cane yield (t/ha)	Duration  of Intercrop in the field (eg. Up to three months)	Average intercrop yield (t/ha)
	Sole sugarcane			-	-
	Sugarcane + Intercrop – 1 (Specify)
	Sugarcane + Intercrop – 2 (Specify)
	Sugarcane + Intercrop – 3 (Specify)

           

Topic iii: Review of Sugarcane mechanization initiatives including mechanical harvesting

Usage of implements in sugarcane cultivation – sugarcane planter – intercultivator – earthing up ridger – stubble shaver - offbarrer- combined ratoon manager - weeder – rotovator trash shredder – Extent of mechanization in farmers’ fields (area & %) across different soil types – saving in labour, time and cost - merits and demerits in mechanization – scope for mechanization in farmers’ fields – cost effectiveness in mechanized and non-mechanized cane farms - perception of farmers towards mechanization – steps initiated to popularize mechanization in sugarcane – constraints in adoption of sugarcane mechanization.

            Mechanized harvesting – machines used, cost of machines, hiring charges of harvester, cost of maintenance harvester, spacing adopted, capacity of the machines, area covered (area and % of total cane area), extraneous materials in machine harvested cane, pros and cons of mechanized harvesting – steps initiated to popularize mechanization in sugarcane – constraints in adoption of sugarcane mechanization; impact of mechanized harvesting on juice quality /sugar recovery.

Topic iv: Current varietal position and Performance of new sugarcane varieties

Varietal position

Sugar factory personnel to provide the following details:

2016-17

S.No	Variety	Area covered	Percentage	Highest yield t/ ha	Yield at the time of introduction (t/ha) (Mention year)	Yield, at present (t/ha)

2017-18

S.No	Variety	Area covered	Percentage	Highest yield t/ ha	Yield at the time of introduction (t/ha) (Mention year)	Yield, at present (t/ha)

2018-19

S.No	Variety	Area covered	Percentage	Highest yield t/ ha	Yield at the time of introduction (t/ha) (Mention year)	Yield, at present (t/ha)

Performance of new sugarcane varieties

            Scientists from ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore & Sugarcane Research Stations of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University would be presenting the characteristics of new sugarcane varieties and their performance in different regions.  Participants may present their observations on the performance of these varieties especially with reference to cane yield (average and highest yield recorded) quality (including SMT and BMT results), performance in different soil types and months of planting, optimum age at harvest and incidence of pest and diseases, tolerance to abiotic constraints like drought, water-logging etc. may also be indicated.

Topic v:   All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Sugarcane, Co-ordinated agronomic experiments/Adaptive Research Trial and SBI-SISMA/SBI-TNCSF Varietal trials

            The results of AICRP (S) trials, CAE/ART trials and SBI-SISMA/SBI-TNCSF trials conducted during the previous crop season would be presented by the Research Institutions and Sugar mills. 

                       

Topic vi: Sugarcane seed nursery programme

           

           

Details of three–tier seed nursery programme adopted by the factory to sustain the yield of sugarcane varieties to be provided.

Particulars	Area in hectares
	Sector I	Sector II	Sector III
Area under primary nursery Variety 1. Variety 2. Variety 3.
Area under secondary nursery Variety 1. Variety 2. Variety 3.
Area under commercial nursery Variety 1. Variety 2. Variety 3.

            Breeder seed production programme of ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University would be discussed.  Sugar factories may indicate their breeder seed requirements for the ensuing season.

Please note:

Kindly provide the data in tabular form, wherever required. You may include additional information if you feel that this would help in enhancing the purpose of the workshop. Please restrict your paper to the main themes of the workshop only.