ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute (SBI) and Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering (CIAE) – Regional Centre here have jointly developed and commercialised a tractor-mounted, two-row mechanical transplanter for sugarcane seedlings raised from sugarcane bud chips and single-bud setts.

In the conventional system of sugarcane planting, about 8-10 tonnes of seed cane (called as setts) are being used as planting material per hectare. Both the quantity of seed material and the cost of seed material are relatively high which accounts for about 20 per cent of the total cost of cultivation of sugarcane.

Using sugarcane bud chip raised seedlings/single-bud sett raised seedlings for transplanting could be one of the viable alternatives for reducing the cost of sugarcane production and could help the farmer in doubling his or her income, ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute Director Dr Bakshiram said.

Compared to manual transplanting of seedlings, mechanized transplanting has distinct advantages such as saving cost, labour and time, offering a new and progressive change in sugarcane agriculture.
Taking this in to account, both the Institutes jointly developed the SBI-CIAE tractor mounted two- row mechanical planter, he said in a release here.

The tractor drawn equipment consists of a mainframe which can be attached to standard three-point hitch arrangement of a 35 HP tractor and two persons will be feeding the rotating system with sugarcane seedlings in furrows at a desired adjustable spacing between rows, Bakshiram said.

The transplanter was tested successfully in field trials conducted at various locations including Coimbatore, Sathyamangalam and Andipatti (Tamil Nadu) and Karnal (Haryana) and the technology was licensed to Rohith Krishi Industries, Chinchwad, Pune.