Growing sugar cane economically

Although the crop devours water, it remains important for India

Consider the water balance sheet of sugar cane cultivation. It takes about 250 tonnes of water to produce one tonne of sugar cane. Viewed from another angle, between 180 and 250 cm of water is used during the crop’s growing period varying from 12 to 18 months. This is more than twice the country’s average rainfall of 89 cm during the four-month monsoon season and substantially in excess of even the whole year’s average total rainfall of around 120 cm.

The crop needs to be irrigated at least five to seven times in the subtropical north and as many as