INFUSION OF SINGLE BUD CHIP PLANTING TECHNIQUE FOR SUGARCANE PROPAGATION

Presently sugarcane is grown on 0.84 million hectares in Punjab and according to planners' area under this sweet crop should be enhanced to squeeze some area from water guzzling paddy, because it is considered as important crop diversification module and second vital agro-industrial crop after cotton. Long waiting period, higher seed cost (' 25000 - ' 30000 per ha), delayed payment and arrears by millers to the farmer, etc. are some bottlenecks in spread of sugarcane to newer niches. To overcome the problem of higher seed rate per unit area an idea of single bud chip planting was floated in form of an experiment in which seed rate is reduced by hundred times with ensured equal or higher yield levels with respect to conventional planting. This chipping and chip planting method can curtail seed cost by ' 20000 to ' 25000 per ha that is direct benefit to the farmers.