Only with irrigation: rain gives too little of its water to count on
- Doesn't suit: Too dry without irrigation
- Needs care: Frost risk in January
- Suits: Soil 10/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Too dry to grow on rain alone. It would need irrigation.
Needs about 1,310 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 510 mm it can use in a normal year, and 440 mm in a dry year.
Temperature
Grows best at 24–37 °C on average, and survives 15–41 °C.
Here, in its growing months (day / night):
- Jun 37 °C / 26 °C
- Jul 32 °C / 25 °C
- Aug 31 °C / 24 °C
- Sep 31 °C / 23 °C
- Oct 29 °C / 18 °C (outside its best range)
- Nov 24 °C / 12 °C (outside its best range)
- Dec 20 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 17 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 22 °C / 10 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 27 °C / 14 °C (outside its best range)
- Apr 33 °C / 19 °C
- May 37 °C / 24 °C
- Jun 37 °C / 26 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Nights in January can bring frost. When frost is forecast, water the field lightly in the evening.
Soil
Soil for Sugarcane: 10 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: nitrogen and boron.
- The pH here suits it.
Likes pH 5.0–8.0.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 337 quintals an acre, the typical figure across India (your district's own figure looked wrong).
Rain gives it too little of the water it needs, so there's no income figure on rain alone: grow it only with irrigation.
Priced at the government's fair and remunerative price for cane, ₹365 a quintal.
- ₹300 2021
- ₹300 2022
- ₹300 2023
- ₹330 2024
- ₹350 2025
Prices are usually best in May.
Typical costs are about ₹61,000 an acre (seed, fertiliser, labour and hired machines, from the government's cost survey). They are spent whatever the harvest.
How to make it work
The better districts with similar soil, rain and warmth get 211 quintals an acre. That's a realistic target.