Author(s): Dr. Anuj Kumar, Sonal Meena and Dr. Sunil Kumar

Abstract: Sugarcane as a commercial crop is a major cash crop in India which is responsible for the overall socio-economic development of the farming community. Sugarcane juice makes jaggery, sugar and khandsari etc. The production of the crop is mainly located in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat. Contribution of sugarcane to the national GDP is 1.1% which is significant considering that the crop is grown only in 2.57% of the gross cropped area. In India sugar is an essential item of mass consumption, and the domestic demand is around 25 million tonnes per annum.. It has been observed that area expansion has significantly contributed towards increased production of sugarcane but productivity has remained stagnant. Cost of cultivation of sugarcane also witnessed increasing trend and due to much higher use of inputs, it was found to be higher for Western Uttar Pradesh. However growth of value of output has outpaced the growth of cost of cultivation and thus rising trend of profitability was observed. This study demonstrates that two cropping systems in Western Uttar Pradesh mainly rice -wheat and sugarcane -wheat cover a large area under different irrigation systems. In this study, an effort has been made in this study to examine the trends in area, production, productivity, costs, returns and profitability of sugarcane and to determine the factors which are contributing toward productivity of sugarcane in Western Uttar Pradesh. The average cost of cultivation of sugarcane crop has been obtained from Rs.195.19 to Rs.208.84 per quintal. Total cost of sugarcane in Western Uttar Pradesh on different means of irrigation like canal irrigated farms, electric tubewell irrigated farms, diesel tubewell irrigated farms, canal plus electric tubewell irrigated farms and canal plus diesel tubewell irrigated farms was received as Rs.195061, Rs. 208542, Rs.219085, Rs.212983 and Rs.216658. Gross income and net income from sugarcane crop in the study area were also obtained in the same order. The study indicated that the cost of production per quintal of sugarcane was lower than other major crops of the region, wheat and paddy, on the other hand, the net income per hectare from sugarcane was higher than the other two crops. In western Uttar Pradesh, the percentage profit and agribusiness was getting more from sugarcane as compared to the major crops.

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