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Abstract. Basecutting is an important process in sugarcane mechanical harvesting. Previous studies have shown that the mode of under-the-ground basecutting can achieve a better cutting quality, however, there existed little research on power consumption with under-the-ground basecutting mode. The objective of this study was to investigate the cutting power consumption when sugarcane is cut under the ground and find the solution to minimize the power consumption while keeping the stubble broken rate to an acceptable level. A series of field experiments were carried out using the existing sugarcane harvester. With the power consumption and stubble broken rate being set as the indexes, the effects of basecutting depth, disc rotational speed and the harvester forward speed on basecutting performance were investigated. Through the statistical analysis, the influence of each factor on the evaluation index was obtained, and the best parameter combination with minimum stubble broken rate and power consumption were determined: the basecutting depth was 40 mm, the disc rotation speed was 600 rpm, and the harvester forward speed was 0.6m/s. This study provided necessary information to guide engineers to design high-performance basecutter with under-the-ground basecutting mode.