The Extent of Awareness Level of Sugarcane Farmers on Crop Residue Management Innovations

The present study was conducted in the Sathyamanagalam block of Erode district during 2021 with the objective of studying the Extent of Awareness level of Sugarcane Farmers on Crop Residue Management Innovations. 60 respondents were selected from three villages. The results of the study shows that 100 per cent of respondents were aware that crop residue burning could create health risks. Crop residue management inventions such as trash mulching, trash shredders, and Harvest mounted cane trash shredder and collection systems were known by 100 per cent of the respondents. Only 10 per cent of those polled had no idea what bio-decomposers were. The Majority of the respondents (93.33%), regularly used trash mulching of sugarcane leaves to manage crop residue beneficially. Only 6.66 per cent of respondents used trash shredders regularly. Even though the subsidy given by the Government was available, due to timely unavailability of machinery led to the irregular use of trash shredders. Even though many of the respondents are aware of the negative aspects of residue burning and innovations available to manage sugarcane trash, they continue to burn due to time and cost constraints. With regard to constraints in adopting crop residue management technologies cent (100.00%) of respondents reported that lack of awareness on subsidies and involves more time and cost as the major constraints. Continuous monitoring of fields by the officials and demonstrations should be conducted to enhance the knowledge of the sugarcane growers on trash management.