Development and Evaluation of Manually Operated Sugarcane

India has the second highest area under sugarcane cultivation next to Brazil. Sugarcane is cultivated in an area of 4.7 million ha with productivity of 72 tonnes/ha. Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative is one of the advanced methods of sugarcane cultivation technique that involves, use of less input like seed sett, water, land, labour and optimum utilization of fertilizers to achieve maximum yield. Removing the mother shoot is one of the main principles of Sugarcane Sustainable Initiative to get even tillers, increase more number of tillers and millable canes per plant. Conventional tool of secateurs, knife and sickle are not popular because the agricultural laborers need to bend down and hold the stem to remove the mother shoot of sugarcane. Probability is more for injuring the hands and eyes and also has more drudgery. Hence, sugarcane mother cutter was developed with components of main conduit pipe, secateurs, operating lever, handle and grip handle. It is operated manually in standing posture with less effort, due to 0.8 kg weight. It reduces cost of cultivation and human drudgery. The tool cuts 800 shoots/hr. It saves 16 per cent and 19 per cent time and cost respectively. The overall dimension of the tool is 950x320x270.