Sugarcane Growth and Water Consumption Under Different Trash Management Systems.

The sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) responds to irrigation, but irrigated agriculture has been increasingly pressed by limited water resources and high demand for use water
sources. Literature has shown sugarcane trash blanket can reduce the evaporation up to 200 mm per year. The study aimed to determine the effect of trash blanket on the on the crop evapotranspiration and water use of a full irrigation sugarcane field, using different techniques for water use (Bowen ratio, sap flow, soil water content, and porometry). The results have shown that there is a difference between treatments after seven months of harvest sugarcane plant, the yield of trash treatment was 97.5 Mg ha^-1 and treatment without trash the productivity was 110.9 Mg ha^-1. Whereas it irrigations were the same for both treatments, the nitrogen may have been primarily responsible for the difference in productivity, being used for the decomposition of trash. Subsequently, the soil analysis will reveal whether there was decomposition of organic matter in the soil and therefore decrease the availability of nutrients in the soil. The water consumption of sugarcane will be established when the crop cycle has finished, which is estimated for October 2014.