SUGARCANE

ORIGIN OF THE CROP:

- Cultivation of sugarcane in India dates back to the Vedic period. The earliest
mention of sugarcane cultivation is found in Indian writings of the period 1400 to
1000 B.C.
- It is now widely accepted that India is the original home of Saccharum
species.Saccharum barberi.
- Polynesian group of island especially New Guinea is the centre of origin of S.
officinarum.
- It belongs to family Gramineae (Poaceae), class monocotyledons.
- The cultivated canes belong to two main groups:
(a) thin, hardy north Indian types S. barberi and S. sinense and
(b) thick, juicy noble canes Saccharum officinarum.

- Highly prized cane is S. officinarum.

IMPORTANCE OF SUGARCANE:
- In agriculture sector, s h a r e o f sugarcane is about 7% of the total value of
agriculture out put and occupied about 2.6% of India’s gross cropped area.
- Sugarcane provides raw material for the second largest agrobased industry after
textile.
- About 527 working sugar factories with total installed annual sugar production
capacity of about 242 lakh tonnes are located in the country.

SCIENTIFIC NAME OF SUGARCANE:

The genus Saccharum has five important species viz.,
- 1. Saccharum officinarum
- 2. S. Sinense,
- 3. S.barberi,
- 4. S.robustum,
- 5. S.spontanuem.

- The first three species are the cultivated species and the last two are wild ones.
S. officinarum species is widely cultivated in India because of high sucrose
content.

MORPHOLOGY OF SUGARCANE:

- Sugarcane is a tall perennial plant growing erect even up to 4 or 6 metres and

produce multiple stems.
- The plant is composed of four principal parts, root system, stalk, leaves and
inflorescence.
- Sheath is Green with red blotches; moderate to heavy bloom; scarious border
prominent; sheath splitting occasional; Spines present on the middle of the sheath;
deciduous.
- Blade Joint or Transverse Mark is Purplish green.
- The inflorescence of sugarcane generally called the 'arrow' is an open panicle.
 It is long (30 centimeter or more) and tapering.
- Cane is Medium-thick; slightlystaggered; slightly oval in cross section, internal
tissue yellow with purple tinge, rind (outer skin) hard; pith present as small cavity.
- Node & buds are slightly depressed; leaf scar slightly inclined.
- Buds are medium, plumpy, ovate; occasionally hairs at the tip of the bud noticed;
inserted at leaf scar.
- Sugarcane is a C4 plant having high efficiency in storing solar energy and most
efficient converter of solar energy to sucrose.
- Sugarcane has essentially four growth phases:
1. Germination phase,
2. Tillering phase,
3. Grand growth phase,
4. Maturity and ripening phase.
NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF SUGARCANE:
- The juice Sugarcane per serving (28.35 grams) contain
- Energy-111.13 kJ (26.56 kcal),
- Carbohydrates-27.51 g,
- Protein-0.27 g,
- Calcium11.23 mg(1%),
- Iron 0.37 mg (3%),
- Potassium41.96 mg (1%),
- Sodium17.01 mg (1%)
(Source: Nutrient Information from ESHA Research)
IMPORTANT REGIONS/ ZONES FOR SUGARCANE CULTIVATION IN
INDIA:
- Broadly there are two distinct agroclimatic regions of sugarcane cultivation in
India, viz., tropical and subtropical. However, five agro-climatic zones have been
identified mainly for the purpose of varietal development. They are (i)North
Western Zone (ii) North Central Zone (iii) North Eastern Zone (iv) Peninsular
Zone (v) Coastal Zone.
- Tropical region Shared about 45% and 55% of the total sugarcane area and
production in the country, respectively along with the average productivity of 77
t/ha.
- Sub-tropical region accounted for about 55% and 45% of total area and production
of sugarcane respectively with an average productivity about 63 t/ha.

- Tropical Sugarcane region: The tropical sugarcane region consists of sugarcane

agroclimatic zone 4 (peninsular zone) and 5(Coastal zone) which includes the
states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya
Pradesh, Goa, Pondicherry and Kerala.

- Sub-tropical sugarcane region: Around 55 per cent of total cane area in the
country is in the sub-tropics. U.P, Bihar, Haryana and Punjab comes under this
region.

Crop distribution: In India sugarcane is cultivated all over the country from latitude
80 N to 330 N, except cold hilly areas like Kashmir valley, Himachal Pradesh and
Arunachal Pradesh.

DEMAND AND SUPPLY SCENARIO OF SUGARCANE PRODUCE:

 - Sugar is the major produce of sugarcane.
- Maharashtra is the largest producer of sugar contribute about 34% of sugar in the
country followed by Uttar Pradesh.
Area, production and yield of sugarcane in major growing states:
- In Tropical zone Maharashtra is the major sugarcane growing state covering about
9.4 lakh ha area with production of 61.32 Million ton, whereas the productivity
of TamilNadu is highest in tropical zones.
- Uttar Pradesh is the highest sugarcane producing State in sub tropical zone having
area about 22.77 Lakh ha with the production of 135.64 MillionTon cane whereas
Haryana has highest productivity of sugarcane in Sub tropical zone.

Varietal Development: Released and notified varieties of sugarcane :

- Co Pant 90223, CoH 92201, Cos 95255, CoS 94270, CoH 119, CoJ 20193, Cos
96275, BO 128, CoSe 95422

CLIMATIC REQUIREMENT:
Temperature for different critical stages of sugarcane:
- The different critical stages are germination, tillering, early growth, active growth
andelongation.
- Optimum temperature for sprouting (germination) of stem cuttings is 32° to
38°c. Temperatures above 38° reduce the rate of photosynthesis and increase
respiration.
- For ripening, however, relativelylow temperatures in the range of 12° to 14° are
desirable.
Reduction in yield of sugarcane due to rise in temperature:
- The sugarcane productivity and juice quality are profoundly influenced by weather
conditions prevailing during the various crop-growth sub-periods.
- Sugar recovery is highest when the weather is dry with low humidity; bright
sunshine hours, cooler nights with wide diurnal variations and very little rainfall
during ripening period.
- These conditions favour high sugar accumulation.
- The climatic conditions like very high temperature or very low temperature
deteriorate the juice quality and thus affecting the sugar quality. Favourable
climate like warm and humid climate favour the insect pests and diseases, which
cause much damage to the quality and yield of its juice and finally sucrose
contents.

CLIMATIC CONDITIONS AND STRESSES IN REGIONS : Abiotic and

Biotic stresses:
- In the tropical region, sugarcane gets more or less ideal climatic conditions for
its growth. It is cultivated with better package of practices and higher irrigation
levels.
- The growing season is long with more equitable and favourable conditions.
- Floods, water logging, diseases such as red rot, wilt, smut etc. are the main
problems for sugarcane cultivation in the region.
- Moisture stress during the early part of the cane growth mostly during March to
June, is an important problem.
- In the coastal areas, red rot has become a major threat. Among the pests, early
 shoot borer, particularly in the late planted crops, and woolly aphid are
considerably serious in this region.
- In sub-tropical region, the extreme of climate is the characteristic feature.
- During April to June, the weather is very hot and dry and the temperatures are
extremely high. December and January are the very cold months with temperature
touching sub-zero levels in many places.
- The major portion of the zone i.e., the North-West zone comprising the areas in
Haryana, Punjab and Western U.P., has very low temperature in December-
January which often causes frost.
- Because of extremes of weather, the active sugarcane growth is restricted to 4-5
months only.
- In eastern U.P., Bihar and West Bengal, sugarcane suffers due to floods and water
logging during monsoon months.
- Several pests and diseases, particularly red rot and top borer and Pyrilla are
common and serious.
- The cane yields are lower in the sub-tropics due to short growing season, moisture
stress, more pest and disease problem, floods and water logging, delayed planting
after wheat and very poor ratoons. The management of these stresses will
necessitate the development of better cultivation and integrated diseases and
insect-pests management modules.
SEED SOWING:
- Sugarcane take generally one year to mature in sub tropical states (U.P., Punjab,
Haryana, Bihar etc.) called “Eksali” however in some tropical states it matures in
18 months(Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra etc.) called “Adsali”.
- In India, planting Seasons of Sugarcane in subtropical regions are September to
October (Autumn) and February to March (spring), whereas in tropical regions
it is June to August (Adsali) and January to February and October to
November (Eksali).
- Apart from this in some states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu sugarcane planting
continue throughout the year except few months.

PLANTING OF SUGARCANE CROP:

Method of planting: Sugarcane can be planted by improved method of planting like,
- deep furrow,
- trench methods,
- ring pit method and
- paired row method instead of furrow system.
Seed rate:
- Seed rate in sugarcane varies from region to region.
- Generally higher seed rate are used in north western India (Punjab, Haryana and
Rajasthan) because of the lower germination percent and also adverse climatic
condition (very hot weather with desiccating winds) during tillering phase.
Distance: The row spacing in sub tropical part is ranges 60-120 cm whereas, 90-150
cm in tropical regions.

FERTILIZER MANAGEMENT –
- An average crop of sugarcane yielding 100 t/ha removes 208kg of N, 53kg of P,
 280kg of K, 30 kg of Sulphur, 3.4kg of iron, 1.2 kg of manganese, 0.6 kg of copper
from the soil.
- The recommendation of NPK for sugarcane crop varies from state to state
and varies from region to region.
- The recommendation of Nitrogen is from 70-400 kg/ha, Phosphorus 27-74 kg/ha
and Potassium 25-141 kg/ha.
- The recommended dose of bio-fertilizers for sugarcane crop is 10-12 kg/ha
Acetobector, Azotobector, Azospirillum etc. are the major bio fertilizers which are
being used in Sugarcane crop.

WATER MANAGEMENT:
- In tropical area, irrigations are to be given
- once in 7 days during germination phase (1 –35 days after planting),
- once in 10 days during tillering phase (36 – 100 days after planting), again
- once in 7 days during grand growth phase (101 – 270 days after planting) and
- once in 15 days during maturity phase (271 days after planting up to harvest)
adjustingit to the rain fall pattern of the area.
- About 30 to 40 irrigations are needed.
- Whereas in sub- tropical area about 7-10 irrigations are being given to the
sugarcane crop.
- Sugarcane is a high water requirement crop. About 250 tonnes of water is needed
to produce one tonne of sugarcane.
- Methods like alternate furrow irrigation, drip irrigation and trash mulching could
be of use to economize irrigation water during water scarcity periods.
- Foliar spraying of a solution containing 2.5% urea and 2.5% muriate of potash 3
or 4 times at fortnightly intervals during drought periods would help to reduce the
impact of drought on the crop.
WEED MANAGEMENT :
- In sugarcane, weeds have been estimated to cause 12 to 72 % reduction in cane
yield depending upon the severity of infestation.
- The nature of weed problem in sugarcane cultivation is quite different from other
field crops because of the following reasons:
Sugarcane is planted with a relatively wider row spacing.
The sugarcane growth is very slow in the initial stages. It takes about 30 –
45 days to complete germination and another 60-75 days for developing full
canopy cover.
The crop is grown under abundant water and nutrient supply conditions.
In ratoon crop very little preparatory tillage is taken up hence weeds that
haveestablished in the plant crop tend to flourish well.
- The major weeds are Sedges- Cyprus rotundus; Grasses- Cynodon dactylon, Sorghum
helepense, Panicum spp, Dactylocternium aegyptium, Broad leaved weeds –
Chenapodium album, Convolvulus arvensis L., Amaranthus viridis L., Portulaca
oleraceaeL., Commelina bengalensis L., Trianthema portulacastrum L. etc.

Integrated weed management

- Complete weed control cannot be achieved by using any one method.
- To have more dependable, economical and desirable weed control without
environmental problems, it is advisable to have a proper combination of
agronomical, cropping, rotational and biological methods with supplemental
use of herbicides.
Weed Management in field -
1. Spray Atrazine 2 kg/ha mixed in 500 ltr. of water as pre emergence herbicide
on the 3rd day of planting.
2. Post-emergence spray of Grammaxone 2.5 litre + 2,4-D sodium salt 2.5 kg/ha
in 500 litre of water on 21st day of planting.
3. If the parasitic weed Striga is a problem, post-emergence application of 2,4-
D sodium salt at the rate 1.25 kg/ha in 500 litre of water/ha or apply 20% urea
may be done.
4. Pre- plant application of glyphosate at 2.0 kg ha-1 along with 2% ammonium
sulphate at 21 days before planting of sugarcane.
5. Remove the weeds along the furrows with hand hoe.

Harvesting:
- Harvesting and collection of cane should be either mechanical or manual.
- It has been found that when cane is harvested and gathered mechanically, by
combined harvester, or manually cut and collected and then grab loaded into
large trucks/ tractor trolley.
Time of harvest:
- As far as possible, harvesting should be carried out avoiding extremes of weather.
- In sub tropical of India, it has been shown that spring harvested plant crop- would
result in a better ratoon then that obtained by harvesting in the autumn. Sugarcane
crop is harvested after attending maturity, generally it starts from the month of Oct
and continue tillthe month of May in sub-tropical states where in Tropical states
it starts from the month of Dec and continue till the month of May.
Harvesting technique:
- Harvesting of vegetative stocks, automatically initiates the regeneration of ratoon
crop.
- In the manual system of sugarcane harvesting using a straight blade knife at the
ground level, then axillary buds which are below the ground level are forced to
sprout and rationing.
- It has been found that knife with a curved blade is much superior to straight knife
in harvesting sugarcane.
Use and recommendation of farm implements and machines used for
differentoperations:
Mechanization in Sugarcane Cultivation:
- Sugarcane is a labour intensive crop and shortage of labour and unavailability of
labour at reasonable rate is the major concern in sugarcane cultivation. To combat
the paucity of labour, mechanized sugarcane cultivation is the only option to carry
out all the operations in time.
- Automated sugarcane cutter-planter machine, trench opener, Ratoon management
device (RMD), power weeder, sugarcane setts cutting machine, ring pit digger,
 trash shredder, tractor mounted ridger, power sprayer equipments.
- The sugarcane harvester is also using in tropical parts of the country.
Crop products
- The main product of Sugarcane is sugar, however, there are many by products of
sugarcane industry are bagasse, molasses, press mud and green top, which are
used by various industries.
- Bagasse based industries mainly produce pulp, paper, particle boards using
bagasse as a fuel, cattle feed, medium for cultivation of edible mushroom,
production of furfural etc.,
- Molasses based industries mainly produce potable alcohol for Distillery, Acetic
Acid, Fuel Alcohol, Cattle feed and many Pharmaceutical products etc.
- Press mud based industries mainly produce fertilizer and the wax and compost
industries, as animal feed.

STRATEGIES FOR SUGARCANE PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCEMENT:

A. Agronomic Strategies:
- Adoption of suitable varieties & their blending, Strengthening of seed production
program, Water Management, Integrated Nutrient Management Approach,
Integrated Pest Management, Ratoon Management, Adoption of suitable Time
and Method of Planting, Promotionof intercropping, Promotion of mechanization,
Credit flow and its utilization,
B. Extension Strategies:
- Timely and efficient dissemination of the innovative crop production technologies
to the farmer’s field is very essential for increasing sugarcane productivity through
modern tools, Training program at different level, Exposure visits, Distribution of
technical literature, Farmers Field School (FFS), Audio-visual aids/video clippings
- Since, the development is a regular feature and joint venture and It should be made
with the help of concerned department of State Government extension officials,
sugar factories,Regional Krishak Sewa etc.