Song Con Sugarcane Joint Stock Company ends the pressing season early, takes good care of the sugarcane left behind

Affirming the advantages of sugarcane harvester

For the first time, applying the combined sugarcane harvesting machine in the raw material area, Song Con Sugarcane Joint Stock Company finished the pressing season earlier than previous years.

Machine harvesting has really solved the problem of labor shortage, reduced costs and accelerated the harvesting process for sugarcane growers. Therefore, households with large sugarcane areas no longer have to worry and work hard like before, instead they can leisurely wait for the machine to harvest quickly, ensuring no sugarcane is lost.

Localities in Tan Ky district consolidate and exchange plots to apply mechanization to raw sugarcane production. Photo: Xuan Hoa

The family of Ms. Dang Thi Tinh in Xuan Son hamlet, Nghia Hoan commune (Tan Ky) has 3 hectares of sugarcane that are all harvested by machine. She said that the machine transports the sugarcane to the factory as it harvests, instead of leaving it piled up for a long time like before; the sugarcane is cut close to the roots, not wasted; especially, there is no need to worry about hiring workers and the cost of harvesting is lower than before. However, there is a disadvantage, if it rains, the machine cannot harvest. "For sugarcane growers, the most difficult and arduous stage is harvesting, so when the machine is used to harvest, sugarcane growers do not have to put in as much effort as before. Therefore, the next crop, the family will continue to hire a harvesting machine" - Ms. Tinh shared.

Ending the pressing season early will give farmers more time to take care of their sugarcane. Therefore, right after the pressing season ends, the Company encourages farmers to take care of their sugarcane in time for nearly 1,000 hectares of newly planted sugarcane and more than 4,000 hectares of sugarcane left over. The first year of testing the use of the sugarcane harvesting machine showed clear results, especially for dry sugarcane plots. Throughout the entire harvest, the machine operated at full capacity, still not meeting the needs of sugarcane growers. It is estimated that up to 10,000 tons of raw sugarcane were harvested by machine during the pressing season. It is expected that in the next pressing season, the Company will contract more machines to serve farmers.

Tan Ky farmers take care of sugarcane after harvest. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Sugarcane care in time

As soon as the raw sugarcane is harvested, people immediately start planting sugarcane and taking care of the remaining sugarcane.

Mr. Nguyen Ba Quy - Deputy Director of Song Con Sugarcane Joint Stock Company added: In order for people to plant and care for sugarcane according to technical procedures, the company's agricultural staff is actively following the locality to provide timely guidance, in order to create a raw sugarcane area for the factory in the next crop to meet both criteria of area and output, striving for a successful pressing season in the 2020 - 2021 crop year.

Agricultural staff of Song Con Sugarcane Joint Stock Company discuss sugarcane harvest time with farmers. Photo: Thanh Phuc

Immediately after the harvest, agricultural officers of Tan Ky district and communes, together with Song Con Sugarcane Joint Stock Company, increased staff to the grassroots to closely coordinate with agricultural officers to guide people to take advantage of favorable weather and rain to focus on filling dead sugarcane patches, taking early care of sugarcane areas with stumps; planting new and replanting old sugarcane areas with low productivity. Focusing on early care and following the correct technical process for sugarcane with stumps will help the sugarcane grow well, and farmers will save costs.

Having grown sugarcane for many years, Mr. Nguyen Van Tuat in Mai Tan hamlet, Nghia Hoan commune has a lot of experience in taking care of sugarcane with roots left. As soon as all the sugarcane is harvested, he burns all the leaves and weeds and plows both sides of the sugarcane rows. According to Mr. Tuat, plowing will loosen the soil, at the same time break old roots, stimulate the sugarcane roots to develop new roots, and germinate quickly. He also digs out the sugarcane clumps that are damaged by pests and diseases and replaces them with new sugarcane, ensuring the density of sugarcane roots in the rows.

The new variety SJC 2 was introduced by the Company for planting in the 2019 - 2020 autumn-winter crop. Photo: TP - XH

Currently, the raw sugarcane area of ​​Song Con Sugarcane Joint Stock Company mainly grows two new sugarcane varieties, LK 9211 and KK2. The advantages of these two sugarcane varieties are the ability to sprout strongly, quickly and concentratedly, strong tillering ability, fast internode growth speed. Good regeneration ability, good resistance to shoot borers, stem borers... good resistance to wind and storms, high sugar content.