Adoption and Efficacy Measurement of Improved Sugarcane Varieties in Livelihood Security of Lower Shivalik hills of Uttarakhand

Sugarcane farming is the largest source of livelihood in plains of Uttarakhand but its productivity is lower (60.5 and 64.6 mt/ha) than the national average (70.0 & 68.2 mt/ha during 2016-17 & 2017-18) as well as amongst other states of lower Shivalik Hills. Hence, a study was undertaken to measure the impact and efficiency of improved sugarcane varieties. CO 0238 was the most popular improved variety of sugarcane and had the highest BCR (3.15:1). Among the local varieties, Pant 97222 showed the highest BCR (1.29:1). Among the sugarcane varieties, net return was maximum in case of CO 0238 (Rs. 212056.08) than all other selected varieties. Box Plot technique implied to find out the yield variations between improved and local varieties. CO 0238 gave average yield of 950-975q/ha whereas, returns from C0 0239 and CO 0124 were 845-890 q/ha respectively. In case of local sugarcane varieties, it was observed that average yield were 665-685 q/ha, 660-675 q/ha and 630-710 q/ha for Pant 97222, COH 119 and COS 94270 respectively. To measure sustaining productivity (economic efficiency) of varieties and to recognise best suited variety for particular region, multivariate regression analysis has been used. The results showed that CO-0238 yielded 170q/ha more than that of CO-0124. Similarly, CO-0139 has produced 81q more yield per ha compared to CO-0124. Results indicate that CO-0238 was the best suitable variety in terms of yield in that region.