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?

Churu Rajasthan
Water
Season

Won't work: too dry without irrigation

Sugarcane

Holds the land all year

No figures for your district: its government crop records list no area or yield for this crop.

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 1,720 mm of water here in its growing months. Rain gives about 220 mm it can use in a normal year, and 140 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 41 °C / 28 °C
  • Jul 37 °C / 27 °C
  • Aug 36 °C / 26 °C
  • Sep 36 °C / 25 °C
  • Oct 36 °C / 19 °C
  • Nov 30 °C / 11 °C (outside its best range)
  • Dec 25 °C / 7 °C (outside its best range)
  • Jan 22 °C / 6 °C (outside its best range)
  • Feb 28 °C / 9 °C (outside its best range)
  • Mar 33 °C / 15 °C
  • Apr 39 °C / 21 °C
  • May 42 °C / 26 °C
  • Jun 41 °C / 28 °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).

Not in the score: nitrogen, sulphur and boron.

  • The pH here suits it.
  • Most fields here are short of phosphorus.
  • Most fields here are short of organic carbon.
  • Most fields here are short of zinc.

Likes pH 5.0–8.0.

How the soil score works

Money

Yield: about 328 quintals an acre, the typical figure in your state (its government crop records list none for your district).

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

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

    Add about a quarter more DAP or single super phosphate than the usual dose, at sowing.

    Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.

  • Short of organic carbon Your soil is likely short of organic carbon.

    Add 4 tonnes of compost or farmyard manure per acre before sowing, and plough crop leftovers back in instead of burning them.

    Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.

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

    Mix 10 kg of zinc sulphate per acre into the soil before sowing. One dose lasts two or three seasons.

    Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.

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

    Spray ferrous sulphate, 5 g per litre of water, when young leaves turn yellow.

    Ask your Krishi Vigyan Kendra what to add for this crop.

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 Churu

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.

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).