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 December
- Suits: Soil 9/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Too dry to grow on rain alone. It would need irrigation.
Needs about 1,160 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 450 mm it can use in a normal year, and 390 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 31 °C / 21 °C
- Jul 28 °C / 21 °C
- Aug 27 °C / 20 °C (outside its best range)
- Sep 27 °C / 19 °C (outside its best range)
- Oct 25 °C / 14 °C (outside its best range)
- Nov 21 °C / 9 °C (outside its best range)
- Dec 17 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 15 °C / 4 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 18 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 23 °C / 11 °C (outside its best range)
- Apr 28 °C / 16 °C (outside its best range)
- May 31 °C / 19 °C
- Jun 31 °C / 21 °C
Months in orange are outside its best range.
Nights in December can bring frost. When frost is forecast, water the field lightly in the evening.
Soil
Soil for Sugarcane: 9 out of 10 (good).
Not in the score: organic carbon, sulphur, manganese and boron.
- The pH here suits it.
- Many fields here are short of nitrogen, which it needs a lot.
Likes pH 5.0–8.0.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 108 quintals an acre here in this season (district figures).
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.