The present investigation was carried out with the objectives to analyze the socio-economic status of the cane growers, to know the level of technology adoption and to identify the constraints in adoption of sugarcane technologies by interviewing 80 growers from different villages of the command area of Kallakurichi II Cooperative Sugar Mills Ltd, Villupuram, Tamil Nadu. It was found that 59.0 per cent of the respondents had secondary school level education and 11.25 per cent had graduation level. Income profile of the farmers showed that 57.5 per cent were of 1.0 to 2.5 lakh income category. Majority of the respondents had access to mass media and were members in any one of the Institutions engaged in agricultural productivity. Major technologies adopted by sugarcane growers were basal application of organic manures (90.0%), wider row spacing (84.0%) and stubble shaving (80.0%). The constraints encountered by most of the respondents in adoption of sugarcane production technologies were non-availability of sugarcane setts, high cost of organic manures, non-availability of inorganic fertilizers in time, non-availability of pheromone traps and lure and non-availability of bio-agents for the management of borer insect pests, high cost of stubble shaving and off-barring, lack of knowledge about gap filling practices in case of ratoon management, high cost of harvesting, scarcity of labourers during the season and high labour cost. Distribution of technology related printed materials, conducting pre-season campaigns and study tours were some of the suggestions made by cane growers to increase the rate of adoption of technologies to increase sugarcane productivity.

Keyword: Sugarcane growers; Adoption; Constraints; Sugarcane technologies; Productivity;