Investigations on Sugarcane De-Trashing Mechanisms

Sugarcane is the second most important industrial crop in India grown in 4.4 million hectares with an average productivity of about 68 tonnes per hectare (Anon.2013). To mitigate the labour scarcity and ensure timely operations mechanization is a must. Mechanisation will also improve the overall energy use efficiency of sugarcane based farming (Duttamajumder et al. 2011). About 45-48% of the total cost of cultivation is accountable to harvesting operation in manual harvesting. Mechanisation of harvesting operations is imperative in increasing the cost effectiveness of sugarcane production system.