Muhammad Afzal, Muhammad Asim Ijaz and Muhammad Ammar
Thal Industries Sugar Crops Research Institute, Punjab, Pakistan; afzal.grewal@thalindustries.com
In Pakistan, rice, wheat, maize and vegetables are more valuable when grown alone than is sugarcane. As a result, farmers are switching from sugarcane cultivation to other crops. This study evaluated intercropping as a way of enhancing the sustainability and profitability of sugarcane cultivation. Two trials, one in the spring planting season and the other in the autumn planting season, were conducted in Punjab, Pakistan. In the spring season 2022, treatments comprised sugarcane as a single crop, onion alone and sugarcane intercropped with onion. In the autumn season 2022, sugarcane, mustard and lentils as single crops were compared with sugarcane intercropped with mustard or lentils. The spring trial showed a net profit for sugarcane alone of $887/ha and for sugarcane+onion it was US$3200/ha. The return on investment (ROI) in sugarcane+onion was higher than the ROI for sugarcane alone. In autumn, the net profit of sugarcane alone was US$3053/ha, whilst for sugarcane+mustard it was US$5200/ha and for sugarcane+lentil it was US$2537/ha. The ROIs for sugarcane+mustard, sugarcane+lentil and sugarcane alone were 2.62, 1.24 and 1.68, respectively. Intercrop income is available to the growers after 100-120 days, a better financial return than for cane income which is available after 300-365 days. Sugar yield of both spring and autumn intercropping did not differ significantly than sugarcane alone. The results showed that sugarcane intercropping did not have a significant effect on the yield and recovery as compared to sugarcane alone when planted at a row spacing of 1.2 m. Our results suggest the usefulness to farmers of sugarcane+onion in the spring planting and sugarcane+mustard in the autumn planting.