As the sugarcane industry uses scarce and expensive resources such as water and fertilizers, a solution is required to accelerate the improvement of sugarcane production efficiency by increasing yield to make the industry globally competitive. Sugarcane farmers grow sugarcane in limited area because of shortage of irrigation water. There has been little work done locally on the water management of sugarcane. Developing smart water management strategies for sugarcane is therefore crucial in increasing production and addressing the increasing irregularity of rainfall patterns.
The project, “Smart Water Management Strategies for Sugarcane” aims to: (1) develop optimum irrigation scheduling schemes for sugarcane using soil moisture and weather monitoring systems; (2) increase sugarcane water-use efficiency under drip and furrow irrigation method; (3) develop locally fabricated multilevel soil moisture monitoring device for sugarcane; (4) develop a cost-effective drip irrigation system for sugarcane; and (5) demonstrate the effectiveness of the best irrigation technology management for sugarcane under farmer’s field condition.
The Furrow irrigation (FIS) in sugarcane resulted in an average yield of 194 TC/ha; estimated no. of 50-kg bag of sugar that can be produced was high at 338 bags. Meanwhile, Drip irrigated Sugarcane (DIS) had an average yield of 162 TC/ha; estimated no. of 50-kg bag of sugar that can be produced was 295 bags.
