Sugarcane crop is a cash crop and serves as a major raw material for production of white sugar and gur. Its shares in value added in agriculture and GDP are 6.4 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively. Sugarcane was cultivated on an area of 961 thousand hectares during the current fiscal year, showing a decline of 4.9 percent over the last estimated at 43608 thousand tonn3es which is lower by  almost 5.9 percent, as compared with last year. The yield per hectare has also declined by 1.1 percent.