Response of sugarcane to different row spacing and drip irrigation levels under south Gujarat condition

Sugarcane dominates the clay soils of South Gujarat, but drip irrigation adoption remains low due to high system costs and farmers’ preference for wider spacing that supports interculturing and mechanization. To generate information regarding proper irrigation schedule in different sugarcane spacing, the present study was undertaken at Soil and Water Management Research farm, NAU, Navsari during 2022-23 to 2024-25 in two cycles of plant and ratoon sugarcane. The treatments comprised of three row spacing, S₁: 150 cm (Lateral in every row); S₂: 120 cm (Lateral in every row) and S₃: 60:120 cm (One lateral in pair) and three irrigation levels, I₁: 0.60 ETc; I₂: 0.80 ETc; I₃: 1.0 ETc taken in RBD (factorial concept) with three replications. The results revealed that significantly higher cane yield were recorded with paired row planting of sugarcane during both years of plant and ratoon sugarcane as well as in pooled results of two cycles. In case of irrigation levels except in plant crop-1, no significant difference on sugarcane cane yield was recorded in both plant and ratoon crop as well as both cycles and pooled of two cycles. Treatment I₁ recorded higher WUE of 176.7 kg/ha.mm along with 35.2 per cent water saving over I₃. It was recommended to farmers that for achieving higher cane yield with net return, sugarcane should be planted in paired row (60:120 cm) and irrigated at 0.6 ETc which also facilitated interculturing operations.