With sugarcane acreage rising to 1.16 lakh hectares and production target set at 700 lakh quintals this season, Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian on Jattvibeday announced a multi-pronged strategy to make sugarcane Punjab’s most remunerative crop through aggressive mechanisation, grassroots tech outreach and direct financial incentives for growers.Citing official data, the minister said the area under sugarcane in Punjab had increased from 1,11,818 hectares in 2025-26 to 1,16,131 hectares in the current 2026-27 season, which is expected to yield nearly 700 lakh quintals of cane if weather remains favourable.Of the total acreage, 47,295 hectares was under ratoon crop, 51,174 hectares under spring crop and 17,662 hectares under autumn crop, he added.For the 2026-27 season, the government has rolled out an incentive of Rs 3,200 per acre for farmers setting up plots to demonstrate recommended cultivation techniques. The scheme will be implemented in 12 districts — Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Rupnagar, SAS Nagar, Patiala, Fazilka, Faridkot and Kapurthala.These demo plots will promote advanced practices such as wide-row spacing, trench planting, intercropping, mulching and scientific ratoon management to boost yield while cutting input costs. The government is also promoting mechanisation by offering 40 per cent subsidy on key equipment, including sugarcane harvesters, small tractors, cane planters and ratoon managers.The minister said joint teams of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), the Agriculture Department and sugar mills were holding extensive awareness camps across the state, focusing on wide spacing trench planting method, primary seed nurseries, disease-free certified seed varieties, balanced fertiliser use, integrated pest management and ratoon management.