Professional Documents
Culture Documents
General Notes
General Notes
● Planting season is critical as a delay in planting can have a significant effect on the final
yield of the crop
● Profitability of sugar determines the support price - The estimation of financial
profitability of white sugar requires information and data on raw material (cane),
manufacturing cost of sugar (processing material, salaries, wages, benefits/ bonus,
consumable stores, repair and maintenances, utilities) and financial expenses (interest,
insurance, depreciation, and administrative overhead).
Sugar Yield
Sugar Recovery =
C ane Y ield
● Since sugarcanes require more water than the average crop, we should look towards
areas with higher rainfall and lands near large natural sources of water (e.g. rivers).
SUGARCANE REQUIRES 1500 - 3000 litres of WATER PER KILO
PUNJAB VARIANTS
SINDH VARIANTS
KPK VARIANTS
CMP-13 1989 Early 70 10.5
The variants of sugar cane data will allow us to further explore which variant are grown in which
region of a province and in turn determine the precise amount of fertilizers, insecticides,
pesticides, water and labor are required. This will help us in calculating costs at this stage with
far greater accuracy.
Fertilizer Requirements
Like wheat, sugarcane is an exhaustive crop and hence requires a large amount of
macro/micro nutrients
Main nutrients needed by sugarcane (like most crops) are:
o Nitrogen (N)
o Phosphorus (P)
o Potassium (K)
Crops require the perfect balance of the 3 based on research methods but no scientific
method is applied in Pakistan. The quantities of all 3 elements should be balanced
amongst the relevant crop however improper doses are used frequently (K is used the
least as per research)
Source (http://www.valleyirrigationpakistan.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Sugar-
cane-Cultivation-in-Pakistan.pdf) gives the recommended fertilizer requirements for
sugarcane growth in each of the 3 sugarcane growing provinces, see below INCLUDE
MORE INFORMATION
Calculations can be done for fertilizer costs using the information in the table above
http://www.parc.gov.pk/index.php/en/faq-s/99-faq/474-sugar-crops gives more detailed
information about fertilizing. Will be very helpful in calculations (below)
PARC recommends the following fertilizers and their doses:
o A month before planting, on the land, two trolleys per acre of decomposed fym
should be thoroughly applied and then irrigated.
o Furthermore, PARC recommends the following amounts of N, P and K based
fertilizers to use which verifies our table above sourced from research published
by valley irrigation.
Some soil may be deficient in Zinc and Borax supply. PARC recommends that in this
case, 10-15 Kg/acre Zinc sulphate and 3-5 Kg Borax ONCE at planting
Major Diseases
See source: http://www.sindhagri.gov.pk/sugarcane-disease.html
The source above not only indicates the major diseases, but also their effects and control
measures that can be taken.
On a crop wise basis, sugarcane crop consumes 2% of all pesticide used. (Most is
consumed by the cotton crop)
In Pakistan exact estimates of yield losses due to insect attack are lacking but it has
been reported that top borer, stem borer, gurdaspur borer and Pyrilla cause a reduction
in yield from 15-20, 10-20 and 30-35 percent , respectively. In some cases as high as
80-85 percent reduction in crop yield due to insect attack has been reported
In most cases, pesticides are applied as per traditional basis, i.e. famers do not use any
sort of scientific method to determine optimum quantities as was the case with fertilizer
usage.
What affects sc crop
o Priyilla
o Blackbug
o White fly
o Mealy bug
o Mites
The source (http://www.sindhagri.gov.pk/pdf/Pesticide%20Recom%20crop.pdf) gives
recommendations based on provincial government of Sindh for insecticides, pesticides
and control measures for major crops (we can extrapolate data from this to calculate the
ideal cost of disease and pest management for a farmer growing sugarcane). The
information also highlights the corporations manufacturing the recommended chemicals.
We can contact these companies and respective distributors to determine the final price
at which these are sold to farmers.
The source (http://www.sindhagri.gov.pk/pest-photo-library.html) provides images of
common sugarcane pests. We can use this to communicate with farmers since regional
language barrier may be a slight hurdle here.