Straw recovery is one of the major challenges for sustainable sugarcane cultivation. Sugarcane straw can contribute to the improvement of soil properties such as soil erosion, incorporation of organic matter, and conservation of soil moisture and increase the biological activities in soil. On the other hand, sugarcane straw may help to increase the incidence of pest. However, straw recovery from field is not that simple due to technological and economic challenges related to handling and trans­portation. High investment is required for straw transportation from the field to the power plant. At present, some initiatives and developments have been done to trans­portation of straw. The best option for removing the straw from the field to industry has been shown in Fig. 16.1.

Sugarcane straw recovery depends on many factors especially harvesting proce­dure, sugarcane topping, variety, height and crop age, climatic condition, and soil. Sugarcane straw can be recovered from 24 to 95 % through mechanical harvesting (Paes and Hassuani 2005). There are some ways to recover the straw from the sugarcane field.