India’s Major Crops: Sugarcane

In terms of production, Sugarcane is the world’s largest crop. In 2015, around 1.88 billion tons of sugarcane was produced worldwide. Top sugar producing countries are Brazil, India, China, Thailand, Pakistan and Mexico.

About Sugarcane plant

Sugarcane belongs to Poaceae family of true grasses. It is a tropical and perennial grass which attains a length of 10 to 20 feet. A single plant of sugarcane has ‘many stems’ in a tuft. There are five different species of Sugarcane viz. Saccharum officinarum, Saccharum barberi, Saccharum sinense, Saccharum spotaneum and Saccharum robustum. The first one Saccharum officinarum is most grown and last two species viz. Saccharum spotaneum and Saccharum robustum are wild.

Since ancient times, Sugar has been produced in the local units in India using traditional Khandsari process.  Modern Sugar making was introduced in India probably by Dutch. The first Sugar Mill was started in India in Bihar in 1903; followed by another unit in 1904 in Uttar Pradesh. By mid of the 20th century Sugar Industry expanded and before India’s independence there were 138 sugar mills in India. After partition around 67% sugar mills came in share of India and remaining in share of Pakistan.

Sugarcane Crop

In India, Sugarcane is grown as a Kharif Crop. It needs hot and humid climate with an average temperature of 21°C to 27°C. 75-150 cm rainfall is favorable for sugar cane cultivation. Irrigation needed for areas with lesser rainfall. Sugarcane can grow in any soil which can retain moisture. Ideal soil for sugarcane is deep rich loamy soil. The soil needs to be rich in nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus but neither it should be neither too acidic nor too alkaline.

Production Figures in India

Sugarcane is grown on around 2.8% of Gross Cropped Area of India. India produced around 352 million tonnes of sugar in 2015-16. Largest sugarcane producing state of India is Uttar Pradesh, which has 38.61% share in overall sugarcane production as per 2013-14 figures. The second and third largest states are Maharashtra and Karnataka.  Other main sugarcane producing states of India include Bihar, Assam, Haryana, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

With huge production of sugarcane as well as sugar; largest number of cane farmers; largest consumer of sugar; more than 500 sugar mills and one of the largest sugar exports, India is considered to be a sugar giant.

Location of Production of Sugarcane

In India, sugarcane is produced in both tropical and subtropical regions. There are three distinct geographical regions in which sugarcane is produced. These are:

• Satluj-Ganga plain from Punjab to Bihar containing 51% of the total area and 60% of the country’s total production.
• The black soil belt from Maharashtra to Tamil Nadu along the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats.
• Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Krishna river valley.

Sugarcane gets more or less ideal condition for its growth in the tropical regions. The plant needs long hours of sunshine, cool nights with clear skies. Due to this productivity of sugarcane is higher in Maharashtra and Gujarat in comparison to other areas. Flat, plain and level plateau is an advantage for sugarcane cultivation because it facilitates irrigation and transportation of cane to the sugar mills. Sugarcane cultivation requires heavy manures and fertilizers because it exhausts the fertility of soils quickly and extensively. Sugarcane is Labour oriented crop and needs cheap labour.

Sustainable Sugar Initiative

Sugarcane is a water thirsty crop and enormous amount of water is needed in its production. The problem of optimal utilization of water becomes a major issue in those areas where irrigated crops and dryland farming are mixed. For example cultivation of irrigated crops such as rice/ sugarcane and dryland crops such as sorghum/millet on same watershed would result in a challenge to use the water optimally for both; because while former are water guzzling crops; too much water to the later is waste of this scarce resource.

There is a need to explore every possible approach to reduce the water input to all crops, particularly those which excessively depend on scarce resources. Any water reduction to thirsty crops such as sugarcane will have a positive impact on the dry land agriculture in the same region. This is the basic philosophy behind the Sustainable Sugar Initiative (SSI) launched jointly by International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and by ICRISAT and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The major principles include the following:

Raising nursery using single budded chips

In the conventional method, 2-3 budded sugarcane setts are used for planting. However, in SSI, they use single budded chips from a healthy mother cane. This would give high percentage of germination depending on the agro climatic conditions.

Transplanting young seedlings

The single budded chips raised are transplanted within 25-30 days in the main field.

Maintaining wide spacing (5X2 feet) in the main field

In conventional methods, the distance between two rows is maintained at 1.5-2.5 ft and 44000 plants are sown per acre but unfortunately half of them are not millable in the end. On the other hand, SSI uses wide spacing to reduce seed usage and support easy air and sunlight penetration in the crop canopy for better and healthy cane growth.

Providing sufficient moisture and avoiding inundation of water

Water management is the key issue in SSI. It emphasizes that sufficient moisture is provided rather than inundating the field with water because flooded condition will actually hinder the growth of the plant.  SSI methods use furrow / alternate furrow / drip irrigation so that only required quantity of water is given. Overall, SSI saves around 40% of water.

Low chemical fertilizers and more organic methods

Although SSI does not put an end to use of chemical fertilizers; yet it discourages high application of chemical fertilizers and use of pesticides and weedicides. It promotes more use of organic manures, bio-fertilizers and follow biocontrol measures. However, it does not ask for a sudden switch to organic cultivation.

Practicing intercropping for effective utilization of land

SSI promotes intercropping in sugarcane with crops like wheat, potato, cowpea, French bean, Chickpea, water melon, brinjal etc. In addition to effective utilization of land, this practice will reduce the weed growth up to 60% and give extra income to farmers.

Benefits of SSI methods

Sustainable Sugarcane Initiative is all about cultivating sugarcane mainly by changing the way the inputs and methods are used. It involves less use of seeds; less user of water and optimum utilization of fertilizers and land; so that more yields is obtained with minimum use of inputs. Its basic premise is to obtain “more with less” in agriculture. By changing the way of raising nursery, it brings down the cost up to 75%. It reduces plant mortality rate; helps in increasing the length and weight of cane. However, SSI is farmer driven method; and its advantages are dependent on the efforts of cultivator himself rather.