Sugarcane seedling producers achieve high productivity and savings with drip irrigation

In Brazil there are 9 million hectares planted with sugar cane. Approximately 15% of this total is renewed each year. This provides a planting area of ​​more than 1 million hectares. The cost of cultivation varies from R$5.000,00 to R$9.000,00 per hectare, with more than 50% of the total cost representing expenses with seedlings.

Aiming to reduce costs, many production units in various regions of the country made the decision to invest in private nurseries. Normally, planted seedlings are produced over a period of 10 months, and it is possible to produce only once in a 1-month cycle. Furthermore, on average, 14-6 buds are produced per sugarcane tiller.

In this sense, some producers have been using localized drip irrigation to maximize this process and obtain several advantages. As is the example of a production unit in the region of Ribeirão Preto (SP). With positive results, they managed to reduce seedling production time to 6 months, making it possible to harvest seedlings twice in a 2-month cycle, producing twice as much as was produced before. Furthermore, through the increase in productivity provided by irrigation, they began to produce 14 buds per tiller. Drip irrigation generated great savings in production costs and they will have many more of their own seedlings per unit area without the need to acquire externally or use commercial sugarcane fields (stems for industry) as seedlings.

The technology can also be used for small producers and suppliers of sugar cane, for example, if they choose, they can sell the seedlings they have on the market with a value 1,5 times higher than the sugar cane that goes to the industry.  

And so, we can do very superficial calculations, for example. If a producer with 10 hectares supplies sugar cane to industry and harvests once per 1-month cycle, the value is R$ 14 per ton. At the end of the cycle, he will receive R$100,00 per ton produced (R$1.000,00 x 100,00 ha). If he chooses to sell as seedlings, he can harvest twice in a 10-month cycle, receiving R$2 per ton produced at the end of the cycle ((R$14 + R$3.000,00) x 150,00 ha), that is, 150,00% more.

In this way, we can conclude that the use of the drip irrigation system is very viable in the production of seedlings, both for the Plant and for the small or large supplier, leading to an increase in profits and a reduction in planting costs.