Evaluation of the Efficiency of Land Use for Sugarcane Crop in Ngoc Lac District, Thanh Hoa Povince

In recent years, the area under sugarcane in Ngoc Lac district hasbeen decreasing dramatically (6,428.4 ha and 2,285,30 ha in 2010and 2017, respectively). One of the reasonsis that local farmers shifted tocultivating market-orientedcropswithoutconcerning the long-termland use efficiency. The aim of this research was to determine the efficiency of land use for sugarcane as a basis for the managers and farmers to use land appropriately. Surveying and interviewingfarmers were conducted to evaluate the economic, social and environmental efficiency for 4 land use types of sugarcane crop in the study area. The results showed that the land use for sugarcane intercroppedwith groundnut crop had the highest value, the specialized land for sugarcane, sugarcane intercropping with mungbean, and sugarcane intercroppedwith soybean crops broughtaboutmoderate efficiency of land use. In addition, the research also showedthatland use type for sugarcane intercropping with groundnut crop not only hadhighimcome, but also helped improvethe soil fertility.It was thereforerecommendedthat land use types for Ngoc Lac districtfrom high to moderate efficiency were as follows: sugarcane intercroppedwith groundnut, the specialized sugarcane cropping, sugarcane intercroppedwith mungbean, andsugarcane intercroppedwith soybean.