WORLD CULTIVATION OF SUGARCANE

Sugarcane World Cultivation

Sugarcane, the main source of sugar, is said to have originated in New Guinea. This crop spread over rest of the world in the pre-historic times but initially it was consumed raw. The process of sugar production, i.e. by evaporating the cane juice, came from India in around 500BC. In Alexander’s reign, the people from west termed this process as “honey produced without bees”.

For a long time, the rest of the world did not know the process of cane sugar production because it was kept as a secret as it earned them a good amount of profits. Finally Arabs broke this secret and started growing sugarcane in Spain and other parts of Europe and Africa around 7th century AD. It started gaining popularity in the European continent and it was considered a luxurious product at that time. A large amount of sugar was imported from the East as it started giving competition to honey as a sweetening agent. Christopher Columbus was the person who took sugarcane to the new world. This is how the concept of sugar production spread in Europe and with the European invasions in the rest of the world; sugarcane was especially cultivated to extract sugar from it.

Initially, the cane was beaten up to extract the juice but after the invention of a press, the quantity extracted was raised to almost a double. The concept of extracting sugar from the sugarbeet or beetroot came into notice in the eighteenth century in Germany. With other inventions, modern methods of extracting juice from the cane and sugar from the juice were developed.

Sugar is mostly derived from sugarcane and sugarbeet crops and the cultivation pattern of both these crops are quite distinguished from each other. While sugarcane is generally grown in the tropical regions of the world that are featured with hot and humid climate, sugarbeet is cultivated in the temperate areas featuring much cooler climate than tropical areas. Sugarcane needs a minimum of 8 months of high temperatures and frost-free weather conditions to prosper. Both heavier soil with adequate irrigation and lighter soils with heavy clays and proper drainage are suited for sugarcane cultivation. The level of production of this crop is dependent upon the extent of the rainfall received. It is an annual crop that is planted in the months of February to April and harvested during the months of October to March. The sugarbeet, on the other hand, is a crop, the roots of which are used to produce sugar. It is sown in the months of March and April and harvested in the months of September to December. Sugarcane is produced in around 120 countries of the world and the world’s total production of sugar figures around 135 to 145 million tons. Brazil stands at the top regarding the production level followed by India and the European Union. Over 3/4ths of the total sugar produced is consumed domestically in the countries in which it is produced, and the rest is traded around the globe which is often termed as World Sugar. The consumption figures of sugar in the world in 2002-03 were around 135 million tons and these figures have shown an increasing trend during the last few years. Sugar producing countries Brazil* India* European Union China United States of America Thailand* Australia* Mexico* Cuba* Indonesia Pakistan*