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?

Dehradun Uttarakhand
Water
Season

Won't work: too dry without irrigation

Sugarcane

Holds the land all year

Grown on 9,217 acres here.

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 8/10
Why, and how to make it work

Water

Too dry to grow on rain alone. It would need irrigation.

Needs about 1,230 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 480 mm it can use in a normal year, and 450 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 32 °C / 21 °C
  • Jul 28 °C / 21 °C
  • Aug 28 °C / 21 °C
  • Sep 27 °C / 20 °C (outside its best range)
  • Oct 26 °C / 15 °C (outside its best range)
  • Nov 22 °C / 10 °C (outside its best range)
  • Dec 18 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
  • Jan 16 °C / 5 °C (outside its best range)
  • Feb 20 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
  • Mar 25 °C / 12 °C (outside its best range)
  • Apr 30 °C / 17 °C (outside its best range)
  • May 33 °C / 20 °C
  • Jun 32 °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: 8 out of 10 (good).

  • The pH here suits it.
  • Many fields here are short of nitrogen, which it needs a lot.
  • Many fields here are short of potassium, which it needs a lot.

Likes pH 5.0–8.0.

How the soil score works

Money

Yield: about 306 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 cane price Uttarakhand fixed for its mills for 2025-26: ₹395 a quintal, ₹405 for early varieties.

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

  • 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 45% of local fields of this crop get it.

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

  • Urea 45%
  • Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) 34%

Fertiliser for one acre here

Urea
133 kg
DAP
66 kg
MOP
51 kg

Source: Middle value of the state doses in ICAR-IISS (2026).

See every crop that suits Dehradun

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

₹71,800

Yield India's average
337.2 quintals an acre
× Price the price Uttarakhand makes its mills pay (2025-26)
₹395 a quintal
= Income
₹1,33,200
− Costs seed, fertiliser, labour and machines, as the government costs them
−₹61,400
= Left
₹71,800

A good year or field earns about a fifth more, a poor one a fifth less: ₹1,06,500 to ₹1,59,800 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. Uttarakhand makes its mills pay more: ₹395 a quintal (2025-26). 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).