The aptitude of the soils for the production of sugarcane. Part 2: Comparison of two methods at ‘Ciudad Caracas’ sugarcane mill

Abstract

The object of this study was to compare two methods for determining the aptitude of soils for growing Sugarcane in Cuba. The information was provided by three sugarcane farms owned by Ciudad Caracas sugarcane mill in the municipality of Santa Isabel de Las Lajas in Cienfuegos. The information of the soils from each farm was taken from the 1:25 000 scale cadastral maps designed by Ministerio de la Agricultura (MINAG). Rainfall data was collected from the nearby stations rain gauges. And the sugarcane yield was reported by each farm. The aptitude of the soils was determined by two methods (AGRO 24 de 1993 y Arzola de 1999) using the information available. Results showed that both methods are appropriate for selecting soils with higher productive potential, and are a useful tool for making right decisions for optimizing the land use at each sugarcane farm.

Keywords

• Evaluation of soils
• sugarcane
• sugarcane mill