Interaction of Irrigation and Interplant Spacing on Yield and Sucrose Content of Sugarcane

A three-years field study of rainfed cropping combined with supplemental spot and flood irrigation along with four inter-plant spacing viz. 30, 45, 60 and 75 cm were conducted in the High Ganges River Flood Plain Soils of AEZ 11 to determine the interaction effect between irrigation methods and inter-plant spacing on the tiller population, millable cane fo rmation, yield and sucrose content (%) of sugarcane grown in the drought prone area of Bangladesh. The experiment was laid out in split-plot design, irrigation as the sub-plot treatment and inter-plant spacing as the main plot treatment. Significant differences in sugarcane yield and sugar production were observed among the applied irrigation methods practiced by the farmers, inter-plant spacing and also among their interactions. Among the various inter-plant spacing, the highest cane yield (75.81 t·hm^-2) was obtained from 45 cm inter-plant spacing. Similarly, among the different irrigation methods (rainfed, spot and flood), flood irrigation show ed the hig hest cane yeild (91.27 t·hm^-2). In case of interactions, the highest number of tillers (203×10³·hm^-2), millable cane (115.53×10³·hm^-2), yield of cane (101.64 t·hm^-2), sugar production (8.45 t·hm^-2) and the highest benefit-cost ratio (5.52:1) were obtained when flood irrigation applied in the plots of 45 cm interplant spacing.Thus, the best interaction effect was found between flood irrigation and medium interplant spacing (45 cm).