Sugarcane Transplanting Becomes 10 Times Easier — ICAR’s New Transplanter Machine Brings Big Relief for Farmers

Krishi Dunia

05 Dec, 2025 12:20 PM IST ,
Updated Fri, 05 Dec 2025 06:06 PM

If you struggle every year with the hard labour, labour shortage, and rising costs involved in sugarcane planting, here’s a major breakthrough for you. ICAR has developed an advanced technology that cuts your planting time in half while significantly reducing your expenses.

The ICAR–Sugarcane Breeding Institute (Coimbatore), along with the ICAR-CIAE Regional Centre, has introduced the “Mini Tractor-Operated Sugarcane Settling Transplanter”—a game-changing machine especially designed for small and medium farmers.
This device makes sugarcane planting faster, easier, and far more accurate—eliminating the complications farmers faced earlier.

If you want timely planting, less dependency on labour, and increased productivity, this machine could be essential for your farm.

Key Features of the New Transplanter Machine

This newly developed machine comes equipped with several technical advantages that simplify and speed up the planting process:

Up to 73% reduction in labour requirement
50% faster planting compared to traditional methods
Uniform spacing and rapid planting of setts
Reduced consumption of seeds, water, and other inputs
Simplified field management—irrigation, fertilizer application, and harvesting become easier

Experts say that the machine is especially beneficial in areas where labour availability is low or labour cost is high.

How Does This Transplanter Work?

The machine operates by attaching to a mini tractor. It places sugarcane setts (single-bud cuttings or saplings) at a uniform distance across the field.

Automatically adjusts depth and spacing based on soil conditions
Ensures strong root development due to precise row planting
Enables rapid coverage of large areas in less time

The parallel row planting created by the machine makes weed control, fertilizer application, irrigation, and harvesting far simpler.

Major Benefits for Farmers

This transplanter brings multiple advantages at various stages of sugarcane cultivation:

Lower cultivation cost, higher profit
Improved crop quality due to uniform spacing
Reduced water requirement
Less dependence on manual labour
Timely planting helps prepare the field earlier for the next crop

A Technology That Can Transform Sugarcane Farming

ICAR’s new machine promotes modern planting techniques such as bud-chip and single-bud transplanting.

With this technology:

Seed requirement is drastically reduced
Input cost decreases
Field productivity increases

The machine can be especially useful in major sugarcane-growing states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka, where delays in planting often cause financial losses to farmers.

How Is It Better Than Older Machines?

Traditional sugarcane planters required 8–10 tonnes of seed per hectare, making seed cost alone nearly 20% of the total expenditure.

The new transplanter:

Greatly reduces seed requirement
Achieves higher planting efficiency with low input use
Is easier to operate and more economical

Important FAQs About the Mini Tractor-Operated Sugarcane Settling Transplanter

1. What is the Sugarcane Transplanter Machine?
It is a mini tractor–based machine developed by ICAR that plants sugarcane setts quickly and precisely.

2. How much time does this new machine save?
It reduces planting time by around 50%.

3. Does it reduce labour requirement?
Yes, it cuts labour dependency by up to 73%.

4. Can small farmers use this machine?
Absolutely. It is specially designed for small and medium farms.

5. Does it reduce seed requirement?
Yes, it significantly lowers seed consumption compared to older planting machines.

6. In which states is this machine most useful?
It is highly beneficial in major sugarcane areas such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka.