UPL SAS: Building Climate-Smart Sugarcane Value Chains

UPL, an Indian agrochemical and specialty solutions company, is redesigning sugarcane production at landscape scale through its Shashwat Mithaas initiative. The programme focuses on building climate-smart value chains that address production resilience and farmer livelihoods across sugarcane-growing regions.

The approach sits between two conflicting realities: sugarcane is a water-intensive crop facing mounting pressure from climate variability, yet it remains a primary income source for millions of smallholder farmers in India. Rather than positioning climate adaptation as separate from yield, UPL's model integrates soil health, water management, and agronomic practice change into standard farming operations.