Vol. 10, Special Issue 10 (2021)

Author(s):
Subhash Chandra, Vinay Kumar Rawat and Satish Chandra Verma

Abstract:
Sugar cane (Saccharum spp.) is an important commercial crop and main source of sugar in the country. It is cultivated entirely almost in all the tropical and subtropical states. Sugarcane cultivation in India dates back to pre-Vedic period and presently the country stands second largest producer of sugarcane (355.0 mt) and sugar (>32.0 mt) in the world after Brazil. Brazil has the highest area (5.34 million hectares) while Australia has the highest productivity (85.1 tonnes per hectare) India ranks second among the sugarcane growing countries of the world in the both area and production after Brazil with an area under sugarcane cultivation of 4.94 million hectares with an average yield is 68.6 tons per hectare. Among different states of the country, Uttar Pradesh occupies first place in area (22.34 lakhs hectare) and production 1623.38 lakhs million tons but in terms of productivity it ranks seventh. (Annual Report 2017-18). The cost of cultivation of sugarcane was more at the field of large farmers followed by medium farmers and small farmers. The cost of cultivation of sugarcane per hectare in the small, medium and large farmers categories were Rs. 53998.40, Rs. 54442.39 and Rs. 57649.61 respectively.