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HIGHLIGHTS Sugarcane hybrids with improved IWUE have greater scope in sugarcane agriculture as irrigation water is getting scarce. Among sugarcane hybrids, Co 8371 registered high mean water productivity of 4.18 kg m -3 , followed by Co 85019(3.92 kg m -3 ), while in I 2 , six hybrids had significantly higher water productivity (Co 85019, Co 0212, Co 86249, Co 10026, Co 0218 and Co V92102) above 4 kg m -3 . Deficit irrigation scheduling (irrigation at recommended interval, with 50% crop evapotranspiration replacement) appears to be far more useful than reducing frequency as well as quantity of irrigation water alone. Hybrid mean water productivity was 3.2, 2.7, and 2.1 kg m -3 in I 0 , I 1 , and I 2 , respectively.ABSTRACT. The escalating deficit rainfall scenario in India indicates that drought is a recurrent phenomenon associated with tropical sugarcane farming, and the availability of irrigation water for sugarcane cultivation will be much less in coming years. To meet the challenge of limited and costly water supply, tropical sugarcane growers will have to find ways of increasing the efficiency of irrigation to maintain high cane yields. More efficient irrigation systems, accurate irrigation scheduling, and the right choice of sugarcane hybrids are potential means of increasing irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE), water productivity (WP), and global water security. With the objective of optimizing irrigation water use, a field experiment evaluating the physiological efficiency of commercial sugarcane hybrids for WP in a sandy clay soil under water-limited conditions was conducted during 2016-2017 at the ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute in Coimbatore, India. The replicated field experiment was laid out in split-plot design with three irrigation levels as the main plot and 33 sugarcane hybrids as subplots. The prevailing climatic conditions during the experiment represented a tropical wet and dry climate, with the wet season lasting from October to December due to the northeast monsoon. The results showed that full irrigation at recommended intervals with 100% crop evapotranspiration (ET) replacement (I 0 ) produced significantly higher cane yield than deficit irrigation at recommended intervals with 50% crop ET replacement (I 1 ) and skipping alternate irrigations with 50% crop ET replacement (I 2 ). The deficit irrigation treatments (I 1 and I 2 ) had declines in cane yield of 41.2% and 56.4%, respectively. IWUE was similar in I 0 and I 1 , while I 2 had reduced IWUE by 23%. WP was significantly influenced by irrigation level; reduction in irrigation water reduced WP by 17.5% and 36.3% in I 1 and I 2 compared to I 0 . Among sugarcane hybrids, Co 85019, Co 13006, Co 10026, Co 99004, CoLk 8102, Co 86249, Co 8371, Co 94008, and Co 95020 yielded higher than the genotypic mean under both deficit irrigation treatments, suggesting their usefulness in deficit irrigation strategies. Sugarcane hybrids with high WP can play a pivotal role in sustaining sugarcane productivity and can reduce the larg...