The field experiment was conducted during 2012-13 on farmer’s field at Baganagar village (Bagewadi taluk of Vijayapur district) which lies in Northern Dry Zone (Zone - III) of Karnataka to study the site specific nutrient management (SSNM) for target yield and recovery in sugarcane. Significantly higher cane yield was recorded with target yield of 300 t ha-1 (211 t ha-1) and was on par with target yield of 250 t ha-1 (204 t ha-1) and target yield of 200 t ha-1 (195 t ha-1) over rest of the treatments. The increase in the cane yield among the target yield treatments was 44, 39 and 33 per cent, respectively in target yield of 300 t ha-1, target yield of 250 t ha-1 and target yield of 200 t ha-1 over target yield of 150 t ha-1. The quality parameters viz., Brix, Pol, Purity, Recovery and CCS per cent did not differ significantly with respect to different treatments. However, higher sugar yield was obtained with target yield of 200 t ha-1 (24.36 t ha-1) by virtue of higher cane yield. Significantly higher nutrient uptake was recorded with target yield of 300 t ha-1 and was on par with target yield of 250 t ha-1 and target yield of 200 t ha-1. Significantly higher net returns was obtained with target yield of 300 t ha-1 (` 3,65,656 ha-1)  and was on par with target yield of 250 t ha-1 (` 3,56,753 ha-1) and target yield of 200 t ha-1 (` 3,43,443 ha-1). The lower net returns was recorded with Farmers’ practice (` 1,61,380 ha-1).