Managing impact of extreme weather events in sugarcane in different agro-climatic zones of Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

Sugarcane is a cash crop in Uttar Pradesh; economic condition of the farmers is highly dependent on sugarcane production. However, average yield of the state has gone up from 39.5 t/ha (1950-51) to 59.2 t/ha (2009-10), was observed associated with fluctuating weather conditions, whereas other major sugar producing area in India have average yield of 70 t/ha. The result of the above study showed that there was an average rising trend in the annual minimum temperature (0.03° Cyr^-1) over all the agro-climatic zones of the state. Out of nine agro-climatic zones, four zones namely South Western Zone, Central Plain Zone, Western Plain Zone and Eastern Plain zone, which were marked by decreasing annual rainfall trend. However, Vindhyan Zone, Mid Western Zone and Bhabhar and Tarai Zone show rising trend. To explain better relation between cane yield and weather parameters this study also show that maximum, minimum temperature and moisture plays the most important role during germination, tillering, grand growth and ripening phases of the sugarcane. Considering extreme weather, we found that temperature below 25 °C, above 35 °C and 40 °C are slowing down the growth and finally reducing the final yield. It is also noticed that temperature and rainfall extremes had high possibility of governing sugarcane yields but there were also quite a number of instances wherein the extremes couldn’t be reasoned directly for the yield fluctuations. Therefore, to sustain the productivity, this study recommends the improvements of the adoptive responses of varieties, management of the risk associated with extreme weather events by providing weather linked value-added advisory services to the farmers and crop insurance agencies.