Over the years sugar has turned into a substantial ingredient of regular food intake. For daily sugar needs, people depend exclusively on sugarcane. Incidentally, India is argued to be its original home. India has the largest surface area under sugarcane and its production is also the highest in the world. Uttar Pradesh is a leading producer, toed by Maharashtra, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Sugarcane requires well-drained productive soil, and abundance of manure and fertilizers. It also needs hot and humid climate and rainfall of approximately 100 cm. It actually grows well in irrigated lands with plenty of sunshine.

Sugarcane is the most irrigated crop in India, as 8% area under this crop has irrigational amenities. In 1950-51 the area under sugarcane was 1.7 million hectares. By 1997-98 it had risen to 4 million hectares. Production also had shot up from 57 million tonnes to over 275 million tonnes and likewise yield per hectare also rose from 33 tonnes to 70 tonnes. It is still far behind the yield of sugarcane in Hawai Islands.

Introduced by the Portuguese in the country in 16th century, potatoes are used as stock vegetable. Its key producers are Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar. In 1996-97 the area under potato was 1.2 million hectares and production of 24 million tonnes, compared to meagre 2.7 million tonnes in 1960-61. Yield per hectare also rose from 7 tonnes per hectare to 19 tonnes per hectare during this period. Potato is one of the staple foods in countries like Russia, Poland and Ireland. Himachal Pradesh in India specialises in potato seed production.