Ganesh Upadhyay, Swapnil Choudhary, Bharat Patel, Naresh Sihag, Naveen Kumar
Sugarcane planting in India is highly labour-intensive and costly, and there is limited field-based evaluation of mechanized cutter planters under diverse agro-climatic conditions. A tractor-operated deep furrow sugarcane cutter planter was evaluated under field conditions at three locations in Haryana using three sugarcane varieties (CoJ 85, COH 119, and CO 118). The machine performs multiple operations in a single pass, such as, opening deep furrows, cutting whole cane stalks into setts, placing them in deep furrows, applying fertilizers and chemicals, and covering with soil. Trials were conducted on sandy loam to loamy sand soils with 11.8% to 13.1% moisture content. The planter achieved sett overlaps between 71 to 81 mm, with over 83% of setts placed within the desirable overlap range, and minimal bud damage (2.78% to 2.93%). It maintained consistent performance across sites, with field capacity of 0.19 to 0.21 ha h-1, field efficiency up to 60.6%, and fuel consumption between 24.05 to 25.89 L ha-1. Labour requirement was drastically reduced to ~20 man-hours ha-1, compared to 210 man-hours ha-1 under conventional planting, translating to over 90% labour savings. Operational costs were reduced by 61%, and mean bud emergence after 45 days was higher in mechanized planting (44.7%) than in the conventional method (39.2%). The sugarcane cutter planter demonstrated a break-even point of 95.73 h year-1, a payback period of 0.99 years, and a benefit- cost ratio of 1.38, indicating it as a cost-effective and profitable option for both individual use and custom hiring. The results indicate that the cutter planter ensures uniform sett placement, reduces labour dependency, and improves planting efficiency. Its ability to handle whole cane stalks and integrate multiple operations makes it a promising solution for large-scale, cost-effective, and timely sugarcane planting under diverse field conditions.