Sugarcane

Planted in February–March, or in October, and cut 10 to 12 months later. The stubble then grows back for one or two more harvests.

Check it on your land
Season
Whole year
100% of its area.
Water
1,510–1,870 mm
of water over its season (rain plus irrigation)
Grows best at
24–37 °C
0 °C survives 15–41 °C 40 °C

When to sow and harvest

Planted in February–March, or in October, and cut 10 to 12 months later. The stubble then grows back for one or two more harvests.

Will it grow on your land?

Surat Gujarat
Water
Season

Possible in Surat, with effort

Sugarcane

Holds the land all year

Grown on 2.1 lakh acres here.

Only with irrigation: rain gives too little of its water to count on

  • Needs care: Risky: 27 irrigations short
  • Suits: Ideal temperatures
  • Suits: Soil 8/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Rain falls about 27 irrigations (5 cm each) short in a normal year, so it's risky without water.

Needs about 1,730 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 380 mm it can use in a normal year, and 340 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 35 °C / 27 °C
  • Jul 32 °C / 26 °C
  • Aug 31 °C / 25 °C
  • Sep 32 °C / 25 °C
  • Oct 35 °C / 22 °C
  • Nov 34 °C / 18 °C
  • Dec 32 °C / 15 °C (outside its best range)
  • Jan 31 °C / 13 °C (outside its best range)
  • Feb 33 °C / 15 °C
  • Mar 36 °C / 20 °C
  • Apr 38 °C / 24 °C
  • May 37 °C / 27 °C
  • Jun 35 °C / 27 °C

Months in orange are outside its best range.

Soil

Soil for Sugarcane: 8 out of 10 (good).

  • 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 works

Money

Yield: about 320 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.

Average mandi price each year (₹ a quintal):
  1. ₹300 2021
  2. ₹300 2022
  3. ₹300 2023
  4. ₹330 2024
  5. ₹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 324 quintals an acre. That's a realistic target.

  • Short of nitrogen Your soil is likely short of nitrogen.

    Add about a quarter more urea than the usual dose, in two or three splits. A pulse crop in rotation also adds nitrogen.

    About 100% of local fields of this crop get it.

What local farmers put on it (share of fields):

  • Urea 100%
  • Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) 71%
  • Muriate of Potash (MOP) 5%
  • Zinc Sulphate Heptahydrate / Monohydrate 1%

Fertiliser for one acre here

Urea
141 kg
DAP
44 kg
MOP
40 kg

Source: ICAR-IISS: District-wise general fertilizer recommendations for major crops in India (2026).

See every crop that suits Surat

What it needs

Temperature

24–37 °C
0 °C40 °C

Survives 15–41 °C. Frost hurts it.

Water

1,510–1,870 mm over its season

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

Belagavi Solapur Kolhapur Pashchim Champaran Ahilyanagar

Soil pH

4 acidic7 neutral9 alkaline

Likes neutral soil. Grows from pH 4.5 to 9.

Soil

  • No salty soil
  • Needs rich soil
  • N Needs plenty of nitrogen and potassium
How the soil score works

Source: FAO ECOCROP crop requirements (via OpenCLIM/ecocrop); FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper 29; FAO-56 crop coefficients (Allen et al. 1998); IMD gridded daily rainfall (0.25°); IMD gridded daily max/min temperature (1°); TerraClimate 1991–2020 temperature normals (about 4 km), where each district's villages are.

Fertiliser for one acre

For most fields

Urea nitrogen
133 kg about 3 bags of 45 kg
DAP phosphate
66 kg about 1¼ bags of 50 kg
MOP potash
51 kg about 1 bag of 50 kg

Give the DAP and MOP at planting, and the urea in two or three doses. After each cut, the crop that grows back from the stubble is fed the same way again. 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 Krishi Vigyan Kendra
  • 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.

What an acre earns

At India's average yield and a recent price, named below. Your land, water and mandi will differ.

Left an acre, a year, once it bears

₹61,700

Yield India's average
337.2 quintals an acre
× Price the price mills pay (FRP)
₹365 a quintal
= Income
₹1,23,100
− Costs seed, fertiliser, labour and machines, as the government costs them
−₹61,400
= Left
₹61,700

Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand make their mills pay more than the FRP: ₹390 to ₹430 a quintal. Open the plan for your district to see it at your state's price.

A good year or field earns about a fifth more, a poor one a fifth less: ₹98,500 to ₹1,47,700 income an acre. Costs stay the same either way.

It bears from its first year.

Work it out for your land

Mandi price, month by month

Best month
May, ₹360 a quintal
Lowest
September, ₹300 a quintal
₹360
₹300
J F M A M J J A S O N D

Rupees a quintal, typical across India's mandis: each month's latest price (Dec 2025–Jul 2026, Sep–Oct 2026).

The centre's fair and remunerative price (FRP) for cane: ₹365 a quintal for 2026-27, the least mills must pay. Every crop's MSP

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

Where it grows in India

Area grown in India
1.3 crore acres
2024-25
Average yield
337.2 quintals an acre (83.3 tonnes a hectare)
recent years, to 2024-25
Most area
Kheri
Uttar Pradesh
Best yield
Namakkal
516 quintals an acre

Where it grows most

The districts with the most area in recent years. The map colours every district growing it on at least 100 ha by yield; the numbers mark these districts.

36% of India's sugarcane area is in these 10 districts

  1. 1 Kheri Uttar Pradesh 5.8% 8.3 lakh acres
  2. 2 Bijnor Uttar Pradesh 4.3% 6.2 lakh acres
  3. 3 Belagavi Karnataka 4.2% 6.0 lakh acres
  4. 4 Solapur Maharashtra 3.8% 5.4 lakh acres
  5. 5 Sitapur Uttar Pradesh 3.5% 4.9 lakh acres
  6. 6 Kolhapur Maharashtra 3.1% 4.4 lakh acres
  7. 7 Muzaffarnagar Uttar Pradesh 3.0% 4.3 lakh acres
  8. 8 Ahilyanagar Maharashtra 2.7% 3.8 lakh acres
  9. 9 Meerut Uttar Pradesh 2.6% 3.7 lakh acres
  10. 10 Pashchim Champaran Bihar 2.5% 3.6 lakh acres

Sugarcane yield, quintals an acre (average of 2020-21 to 2024-25 in most districts)

  1. 5.6–175
  2. 176–261
  3. 262–309
  4. 311–358
  5. 359–516
No data

1 Numbers match the list: the districts with the most area.

Source: Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare). 2020-21 to 2024-25.

Where yields are highest

Districts growing it on at least 100 ha, against the average across India. The line runs from India's average to each district.

Source: Crop area, production & yield – district-wise (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare); Crop area, production & yield – UPAG (Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare). 2020-21 to 2024-25.

Across India over the years

Yield across India, quintals an acre

200 q 250 q 300 q 350 q
1998-99 2024-25
Latest 338 quintals an acre in 2024-25

Area sown across India, acres

0 50 lakh 1 crore 1.5 crore 2 crore
1998-99 2024-25
Latest 1.3 crore acres in 2024-25

Years run July to June. 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 381 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).