Cane Development and Transfer of Technology

Abstract

There is an old cliché, ‘cultivate the grower and he will grow quality cane for the factory’. This implies an intimate relationship between the grower and the miller. Two scenarios exist: one where the factory owns the entire plantation and the other where farmers grow cane on owned or leased land and supply it to the factory. Thus, cane development requires specialized public relations involving both art and science. Management may be defined as managing people and, hence, the management of a cane department must essentially cultivate the growers to accept the philosophy of sustained growth of the factory and the welfare of a large sector of growers. The cane department has the onerous responsibility of motivating the cane growers to grow a particular variety or to adopt a particular agronomic package so as to maximize cane and sugar outputs.