Labour Scarcity and Selective Mechanisation of Sugarcane Agriculture in Tamil Nadu, India

Cultural operations for sugarcane production are arduous especially planting, irrigation and harvesting. In the recent past, labour scarcity coupled with high labour wage rate greatly affected the irrigation and harvesting of the crop in time. It has reduced sugarcane area from 3.91 lakh ha 2006-2007 to 3.14 lakh ha in 2009-2010 at Tamil Nadu. Modern sugarcane machinery and labour saving devices were introduced at large scale to reduce the dependency of labour, and complete the farm operation in time. Mechanical operations proved that it was superior to manual operations. It reduced cost of production and enable efficient utilization of resources with better work output. For e. g. Furrow method of irrigation requires about 320 man-hour as against drip irrigation requires of only 30 man-hours. Manual harvesting required about 1,000 man hour with the cost of Rs 55,000 to harvest 100 t/ha (Rs 550/tonne) against Rs 32,500/ha (Rs 325/t) with the labour engagement of 12 man-hours/ha. Now it is inevitable to use modern sugarcane machinery, which is now available in the-country like sugarcane planters weeding machinery and imported harvesters. Although their initial cost is very high but advantages accrued in their use are much more. There is an enormous need to use drip irrigation and mechanical harvesters to mitigate acute labour scarcity (farm operation and harvesting). Custom hiring system on co-operative basis/or owned and operated by sugar factories of sugarcane harvesters should also be implemented (1US $ = 54 IN Rs).