Best Management Practices for Organic Sugarcane and Organic Jaggery Production: An Experimental Study

Jaggery is sugarcane based natural sweetener made by the concentration of sugarcane juice without any use of chemicals. Use of chemicals such as hydros, and phosphoric acid, for jaggery manufacturing resulted in health hazards. Quality of jaggery depends on genotypes, nutrient management and clarifications used in processing of jaggery. So a series of field experiment was carried out on organic nutrient management practices for organic sugarcane with different sugarcane varieties for organic jaggery production, which consists of three genotypes as main plot and five nutrient management practices (N1: 100 per cent organics through 1/3rd each of farm yard manure (FYM), vermicompost (VC), integrated green manure of sun hemp (IGM) equivalent to recommended dose of nitrogen (RDN: 250 kg N/ha). N2: 100 per cent organics through 1/3rd each of FYM, VC, and Enriched Press mud (EPM) equivalent to RDN. N3: 100 per cent organics through 1/4th each of FYM, VC, IGM and EPM equivalent to RDN. N4: 100 per cent inorganics through only chemical fertilizers (250:75:190 kg of N: P2O5:K2O ha-1, respectively). N5: Integrated nutrient management as per the recommended package of practice of UAS Dharwad (RPP)). The findings shows that Co-Snk 0632 during 2013-14, Co-Snk 05104 (SNK 814) during 2014-15 and Co-Snk 7680 during 2015-16 recorded higher cane yield than other genotypes. Among the organic treatments N2: 100 per cent organics through 1/3rd each of FYM, VC, and Enriched Press mud (EPM) equivalent to RDN recorded higher cane yield, sugar yield and jaggery yield than other organic treatments. However, RPP yielded higher net returns (Rs. 193 thousand ha-1) for sugarcane production, whereas jaggery production with organic nutrient management with the application of 100 per cent organics through 1/3rd each of FYM, VC, and Enriched Press mud (EPM) equivalent to RDN and marketed at premium price, recorded higher net returns (Rs. 287 thousand ha-1) and B: C ratio (2.22) than other treatments.