Sugarcane

Planted once, harvested year after year.

Check it on your land
Season
Whole year
JJASONDJFMAM
100% of its area.
Water
1,310–1,820 mm
over its season
Temperature
24–37 °C
0° survives 15–41 °C 40°

When to sow and harvest

Planted once at the start of the monsoon. It stays for years and gives a harvest every year.

Will it grow on your land?

Water
Season

Pick your place and water to see:

  • Whether Sugarcane suits your land Good fit, possible or won't work, with the reasons.
  • What it could earn an acre From yields near you and mandi prices.
  • Water and fertiliser it needs Irrigations for your water, and bags for one acre.

What it needs

Temperature

24–37 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 15–41 °C. Frost hurts it.

Water

1,310–1,820 mm over its season

Rain and irrigation together, worked out where most of it grows:

Belagavi Muzaffarnagar Bijnor Kheri Solapur

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes neutral soil. Grows from pH 4.5 to 9.

Soil

  • Takes a little salt
  • Needs rich soil
  • N Needs plenty of nitrogen and potassium
How the soil score works

Source: FAO ECOCROP crop requirements (via OpenCLIM/ecocrop); FAO-56 crop coefficients (Allen et al. 1998); IMD gridded daily rainfall (0.25°); IMD gridded daily max/min temperature (1°).

Fertiliser for one acre

Urea nitrogen
133 kg 3 bags of 45 kg
DAP phosphate
66 kg 1½ bags of 50 kg
MOP potash
51 kg 1 bag of 50 kg

Give the DAP and MOP at sowing, and the urea in two or three doses. If your soil card says a nutrient is low, add about a quarter more of it.

ICAR has worked out the dose for 259 districts. Check it on your land above to see yours.

Watch out for

Draft: check with your KVK
  • Red rot
    Disease

    Look for

    Leaves dry from the edges; the cut cane is red inside with white patches and smells sour.

    What to do first

    Plant healthy setts from a clean nursery and a resistant variety; dig out and burn sick clumps.

  • Early shoot borer
    Pest

    Look for

    Young shoots dry (dead heart), pull out easily and smell bad.

    What to do first

    Earth up, mulch with trash and release Trichogramma egg cards; cut out dead hearts.

  • Top borer
    Pest

    Look for

    Bunchy top with shot holes in the leaves; red tunnels along the midrib.

    What to do first

    Collect egg masses and cut out hit shoots; release Trichogramma egg cards.

  • White grub
    Pest

    Look for

    Clumps turn yellow and dry; roots eaten; white C-shaped grubs in the soil.

    What to do first

    Plough deep in summer and collect beetles after the first rains; treat the soil as your KVK advises.

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
August, ₹550
Lowest
January, ₹300
₹300
₹550
J F M A M J J A S O N D

Rupees a quintal, typical across India's mandis.

Government minimum support price (MSP): ₹365 a quintal for 2026-27.

Source: Agmarknet daily prices and arrivals (India Data Portal).

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
54,43,852 ha
2024-25
Average yield
83.5 t/ha
2024-25
Most area
Kheri
Uttar Pradesh
Best yield
Namakkal
127.6 t/ha

Districts with the most area (recent figures)

The map colours each district by yield, for districts growing it on at least 100 ha.

  1. Kheri, Uttar Pradesh 3,37,013 ha
  2. Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh 2,50,573 ha
  3. Belagavi, Karnataka 2,44,630 ha
  4. Solapur, Maharashtra 2,18,143 ha
  5. Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh 2,00,316 ha
  6. Kolhapur, Maharashtra 1,77,280 ha
  7. Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh 1,74,338 ha
  8. Ahilyanagar, Maharashtra 1,54,548 ha
  9. Meerut, Uttar Pradesh 1,49,196 ha
  10. Pashchim Champaran, Bihar 1,46,094 ha

Sugarcane yield

  1. 1.4–43.3 t/ha
  2. 43.4–64.5 t/ha
  3. 64.6–76.7 t/ha
  4. 76.8–88.6 t/ha
  5. 89.0–127.6 t/ha
No data

Source: Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare). 1998-99 to 2024-25.

Where yields are highest

  1. Namakkal, Tamil Nadu 127.6 t/ha
  2. Shivamogga, Karnataka 126.7 t/ha
  3. Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu 124.7 t/ha
  4. Mysuru, Karnataka 124.2 t/ha
  5. Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu 121.4 t/ha
  6. Puducherry, Puducherry 121.0 t/ha
  7. Erode, Tamil Nadu 119.1 t/ha
  8. Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu 113.9 t/ha
  9. Mandya, Karnataka 112.3 t/ha
  10. Purulia, West Bengal 110.5 t/ha

Only districts growing it on at least 100 ha.

Source: Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare). 1998-99 to 2024-25.

Across India over the years

Yield (t/ha)

59.9 72.7 85.4
1998-99 2024-25
Latest 83.5 t/ha in 2024-25

Area (ha)

0.0 3.0M 6.1M
1998-99 2024-25
Latest 54,43,852 ha in 2024-25

Only years in which most of the usual districts reported are shown.

Source: Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare). 1998-99 to 2024-25.

Soil and yield

How district soil tests line up with this crop's yields across India.

Sugarcane yields tend to be higher in districts with

  • More soil that is alkaline moderate 389 districts
  • More soil short of iron weak 388 districts
  • More soil low in organic carbon weak 388 districts
  • More soil low in nitrogen weak 377 districts

Sugarcane yields tend to be lower in districts with

  • More soil medium in nitrogen weak 377 districts
  • More soil high in organic carbon weak 388 districts

A pattern is not proof that soil causes the difference.

Source: Soil Health Card – soil nutrient analysis (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare).