Research On The Problems And Possible Strategies For The Sugarcane Harvesting Mechanization In Guangxi

Guangxi is the largest sugar producing area in China, and sugarcane is an important agricultural product for Guangxi. Sugar prices around the world have rapidly decreased over the past several years. The competition in the international sugar industry is considerably more intense. The Chinese domestic sugar industry faces major challenges and pressures to improve efficiencies in increasing domestic production labor and planting costs, and decreasing sugar cane purchase prices has lowered the profit margin for sugar cane. One possible strategy to strengthen the competitiveness of Guangxi sugar is to reduce production costs. Increasing the use of harvesting mechanization is potentially one such way to reduce sugarcane production costs.This paper explores the potential benefits of mechanization in harvesting sugarcane, identifies possible problems and proposes various solutions. The paper reviews domestic and foreign literature on the subject. In addition, the paper uses data collected from field experiments and individual questionnaires completed by sugarcane producers in Guangxi. Austrlia and America achieved 100% to conversion to mechanical sugarcane harvesting, and Brazil has achieved 87% of mechanical planting. Only 0.4% of sugarcane area in Guangxi is harvested by harvesters, manual harvesting is still the major way to harvest cane. By comparing and analyzing the use of sugarcane harvesting mechanization between foreign countries and Guangxi, the paper identifies 8 potential problems associated with increasing use of mechanical harvesting in Guangxi:1) the current practice of small row spacing in sugarcane fields,2) high breaking stubble and impurity rate for mechanized harvesting of sugarcane,3) the problem of transporting and crushing harvested sugar cane stubble,4) small size of sugarcane field,5) low speed of land-use transfer rights to increase size of production space,6) low education level of sugarcane growers,7)the huge investment necessary to acquire harvesting equipment, and 8)inexperienced and untrained people in use equipment.To solve those problems, the paper recommends strategies to consider. These strategies are:1) enhance the efficiency between the use of agricultural machinery and agronomy,2) To launch land consolidation campaign and develop large scale management,3) raise farmer’s education and experience by providing more training opportunities,4)increase support from government,5)improve service and repair quality by harvester manufacturers,6) promote and increase involvement of sugar mills in supporting harvest mechanization,7)establish effective mode to promote use of harvest mechacnization,8) strengthen the cooperation between machinery manufacturers, agricultural research institutes, government and farmers.