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
- Needs care: Soil 4/10
Why, and how to make it work Hide details
Water
Too dry to grow on rain alone. It would need irrigation.
Needs about 1,450 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 430 mm it can use in a normal year, and 380 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 39 °C / 26 °C
- Jul 34 °C / 26 °C
- Aug 33 °C / 26 °C
- Sep 33 °C / 24 °C
- Oct 32 °C / 18 °C
- Nov 27 °C / 12 °C (outside its best range)
- Dec 22 °C / 8 °C (outside its best range)
- Jan 18 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
- Feb 23 °C / 10 °C (outside its best range)
- Mar 28 °C / 14 °C (outside its best range)
- Apr 35 °C / 20 °C
- May 39 °C / 24 °C
- Jun 39 °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: 4 out of 10 (poor).
Not in the score: nitrogen, organic carbon, pH and 3 more.
- Many fields here are short of potassium, which it needs a lot.
Likes pH 5.0–8.0. We have no pH figures for this place.
How the soil score worksMoney
Yield: about 324 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 Punjab fixed for its mills for 2025-26: ₹416 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
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Short of potassium Your soil is likely short of potassium.
Add about a quarter more potash (MOP) than the usual dose.
Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.