The aim of this study was to explore the use of in situ spectroscopy for estimating sugarcane leaf nitrogen (IN) concentration Leaf spectral reflectance was Measured using a field spectroradiometer in the 3502500 rim range from sugarcane variety N 19 crops of 6-7 months Old Under on-farm conditions Lab determined leaf N concentrations of the samples taken ranged from 1 00% to 1 55% Vegetation indices based on simple ratio (SR), viz SIR (743, 13 16). SR (743, 1317) and SR (741, 1323) generated from first-order derivatives of leaf reflectance showed the best correlation with leaf N concentration, with r(2) values of 0 76 (P < 0 0 1), 0 75 (P < 0 01) and 0 74 (P < 0 01), respectively The root mean square errors of prediction (RMSEP) using a leave-one-out cross validation method were 0 089% (P < 0 01) for SR (743, 13 16). 0 092% (11 < 0 0 1) for SR (743, 3 17) and 0 084% (11 < 0 01) for SR (741, 1323) These results suggest that the HI Situ spectroscopy has potential use in predicting sugarcane leaf N (C) 2009 Elsevier B V All rights reserved