Labour Scarcity and Selective Mechanisation of Sugarcane Agriculture in Tamil Nadu, India

Murali, P.; Balakrishnan, R.

doi:10.1007/s12355-012-0153-1

Cited by 17 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Often this involves low skill, low wage and physically demanding tasks that are largely taken by migrant labor in developed countries such as the USA and UK. Such labor enables profitability of the harvesting of many crops and thereby serves to increase HE (Murali and Balakrishnan, 2012). However, the hostile immigration environment developing in the UK is resulting in a reduction in seasonal migrant labor movement and threatens agricultural efficiency.…”

Section: Availability Of Labormentioning

confidence: 99%

Food Chain Inefficiency (FCI): Accounting Conversion Efficiencies Across Entire Food Supply Chains to Re-define Food Loss and Waste

Horton

Bruce

Reynolds

et al. 2019

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Achieving global food security requires a new approach that integrates not only all aspects of the growing, harvesting and processing of food (necessary to ensure sufficient affordable and sustainable production to alleviate hunger) but also the complexities associated with food consumption including deterring unhealthy overconsumption. Inefficiencies occur at various points along the agri-food supply chain but at present they are inadequately conceptualized via separate accounts of food loss, food waste, supply chain management, and public health. Here we re-define food loss and waste through the concept of conversion efficiency applied to the entire system, an approach up to now only applied to the primary processes of crop productivity. Nine conversion efficiencies are defined: sunlight capture efficiency; photosynthesis use efficiency; biomass allocation efficiency; harvesting efficiency; storage and distribution efficiency; processing efficiency; retailing efficiency; consumption efficiency; and dietary efficiency. Using the production and consumption of bread in the UK as an example, we demonstrate how efficiencies may be estimated and thus where the main inefficiencies lie, so indicating where the most significant improvements could be made. We suggest that our approach, which introduces the term Food Chain Inefficiency (FCI) to re-define food loss and waste, provides a rational and effective way to devise the practical interventions and policies needed to deliver a sustainable agri-food system.

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Section: Availability Of Labormentioning

confidence: 99%

Food Chain Inefficiency (FCI): Accounting Conversion Efficiencies Across Entire Food Supply Chains to Re-define Food Loss and Waste

Horton

Bruce

Reynolds

et al. 2019

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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“…The results in this paper suggest that SSGs in Mona and Sonkombo own small pieces of land where they produce sugarcane. Sugarcane production is arduous, and high amounts of skilled labour are necessary for various operations during the production season [27]. The results in this paper show that the mean labour for SSGs in Mona and Sonkombo for sugarcane production is 1.66 man-days/ha and ranges from about 1 to 11 man-days/ha.…”

Section: Farm Characteristics Of the Interviewed Sugarcane Small-scalmentioning

confidence: 76%

Factors Affecting Sugarcane Production by Small-Scale Growers in Ndwedwe Local Unicipality, South Africa

2019

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Sugarcane is an important crop worldwide due to its many nutritional and economic uses. Small-scale sugarcane growers (SSGs) are a significant sector of sugarcane production in South Africa. However, the number of SSGs is noted to have declined from as early as the 2000s to the present time. As a result of the declining sugarcane production, there are now generally fewer SSGs. However, it is not clear cut as to what caused the decrease in sugarcane production by SSGs. The primary objective of this paper is to determine the factors affecting the sugarcane production by SSGs in Mona and Sonkombo in Ndwedwe Local Municipality. Data collection was through a well-structured questionnaire administered to 100 SSGs (that is, 50 respondents each from the study sites, namely Mona and Sonkombo) that were randomly selected. The paper employs descriptive statistics to describe farm characteristics, and a production function (Cobb–Douglass production function (CDPF)) analysis using the ordinary least squares (OLS) criterion to estimate the parameters affecting sugarcane production. Results show that late harvesting (by up to three (3) weeks), late fertiliser application (by up to six (6) months, and chemicals (Gramoxone) application (by up to five (5) months) were primary challenges facing SSGs, likely to result in declining sugarcane yield. The CDPF regression analysis reveals that significant predictors of the production function are: labour and the amount of chemicals (Gramoxone) applied. Labour (man-days/ha), amount of chemicals (Gramoxone) applied are found to be statistically significant and positively correlated with sugarcane production. The government, through the relevant Department of Agriculture, including the private sector, should intensify out-grower technical services for SSGs to realise higher production per hectare. Such services would ensure optimal allocation and application of inputs, labour and chemicals (herbicides and pesticides), respectively, at the right time to ensure efficacy. There is also a need to introduce buying consortiums for SSGs to reduce the costs of inputs.

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“…to Murali [10], "Mechanical operations proved that it was superior to manual operations. It reduced cost of production and enable efficient utilization of resources with better work output.…”

Section: Accordingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance of Sugarcane Cultivation in Thiuvannamalai District of Tamil Nadu, India - A Socio-economic Analysis

Elenchezhian,

Senthilnathan,

Rajendran

et al. 2024

JEAI

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The core objective of the study is to analyze the performance of sugarcane in terms of cost and returns and resource use efficiency. A sample of 30 Sugarcane growing farmers purposively selected at random from the Vazhavachannur and Perunduraipattu villages of Thandrampattu block of Tiruvannamalai District. Since all the sugarcane farmers use the same cultivation practices, 30 sample farmers are sufficient to represent the entire sugarcane farmers of the study area. Tools like simple average and percentage analyses were used to examine cost of cultivation, labour hours used, quantity of materials used and machine hours used by farmers in each crop production. Regression analysis was employed to measure the influence of selected explanatory variables on independent variables. Result showed that joint family constitutes about 33.00 percent and nuclear family was 67 of the total sample households. Average size of holding is 3.28 acre. Total cost of cultivation for groundnut is Rs.59376.64/acre. Gross income from groundnut is Rs.140962.50/acre. Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) of groundnut cultivation is 2.37. All the sample farmers wholly depend on the sugarcane cooperatives for selling their produce. The human labors were used for Inter cultural operation, sowing & transplanting, chemicals, fertilizer and Farm Yard Manure (FYM). FYM, chemicals, fertilizer and seed are the major inputs used in crop production. Bund Former and Rotavator is the machines used for crop production. About 89.00 percent of variation in dependent variables explained by the selected independent variables such as quantity of chemicals and labor hours for inter cultural operation.

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Labour Scarcity and Selective Mechanisation of Sugarcane Agriculture in Tamil Nadu, India

Cited by 17 publications

References 3 publications

Food Chain Inefficiency (FCI): Accounting Conversion Efficiencies Across Entire Food Supply Chains to Re-define Food Loss and Waste

Food Chain Inefficiency (FCI): Accounting Conversion Efficiencies Across Entire Food Supply Chains to Re-define Food Loss and Waste

Factors Affecting Sugarcane Production by Small-Scale Growers in Ndwedwe Local Unicipality, South Africa

Performance of Sugarcane Cultivation in Thiuvannamalai District of Tamil Nadu, India - A Socio-economic Analysis

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