Indexing of sugar cane lands in Mauritius: II. Food crop suitability and production potential of small-planters' land
| MSI99P1630 | |
| Govinden, N. Ramasamy, S. | |
| Indexing of sugar cane lands in Mauritius: II. Food crop suitability and production potential of small-planters' land | |
| Periodical article | |
| 1994 | |
| Revue agric. sucr. Ile Maurice | |
| 73 (3): 21-28 | |
| Published 1995 | |
| En | |
| En Fr | |
| Within the land index project, a survey of small planters' cane lands was initiated in 1985 and completed in 1989. A database has been created on the physical and agronomic characteristics as well as the agricultural suitability of the sugarcane fields. Information on the are suitable for potato, maize and groundnut was retrieved. Isnald-wide, it is observed that only about 20 per cent of small planters' cane lands are suitable for one or the other food crop in the first season (January-June), and about 10 per cent in the second season (July-December). In the absence of information on dates of planting and harvesting of cane fields, several assumptions were made in order to estimate the area available for the production of the food crops. Results showed that only about 3 per cent of the total land area is available in the interrows of plant cane, 4-7 per cent as interrows of ratoons and 1-2 per cent as rotational land. The production potential obtained by multiplying the area available by current average yields amounts to about 4,700 tonnes of potato, 1,600 tonnes of maize and 260 tonnes of groundnut if all available land were to be used. However, small planters currently produce much less than this because of numerous c onstraints. These have to be addressed before production can be improved. | |
| LAND USE LAND RESOURCES PRODUCTION POTENTIAL MAIZE POTATOES GROUNDNUTS LAND RESOURCES SUGARCANE INTERCROPPING ROTATIONS SMALL PLANTERS | |
| MAURITIUS | |
| Land use and management | |
| Agricultural diversification | |
| 1995-05-05 | |
| En | |
| LIB | |
| CAT | |
| FC |