Philippine E-Journals

Innovative Approaches to Soil Rejuvenation and Post-Harvest Management in Sugarcane Production in the Philippines

Paulino A. Oñal, Jr. | Jian Meng Yuan | Paulino Miguel M. Oñal

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

Innovations employed in farming are usually done by integrating the ex-isting sugarcane production technologies. The main purpose of innova-tion is to increase production and to sustain the sugarcane industry. The study aims to validate some of the soil rejuvenation and post-harvest in-novations practiced by the farmers that could affect their sugar produc-tion. The descriptive method of research is employed in the study. The 320 sugarcane farmers were randomly identify at the seven locations in the Visayas area of the Philippines using the Slovin’s formula. An instru-ment used was the validated survey questionnaire used by the group of Oñal in their study since 2021. Frequency count, mean, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson Product Moment Correlation were utilized in the data anal-yses. Key findings showed that the average production of sugarcane farms in the Visayas was between 50-64 tons per hectare (TC/ha) when grouped by location (alpha = 0.05). Correlation analysis show that appli-cation of correct quantity of lime and mill waste have a strong relation-ship with production (alpha = 0.01), while the correct lime placement (al-pha = 0.05) and practice of green manuring (alpha = 0.01) have a moder-ate relationship, respectively. For post-harvest innovations, correlation analysis implied that the delivery of freshly cut cane to the mill is strongly correlated with the production. Considering that majority of the soil re-juvenation and post-harvest innovations practiced by the farmers have a moderate to strong relationship with the production, the academe and the government should go hand in hand in the conducting more research, strengthen the extension services and provide more assistance that can increase further the productivity per unit area.