Sugar beet has the advantage of low crop water demand over sugar cane. It may save huge amount of irrigation water when compared to sugarcane. Moreover, crop duration of sugar beet is 5-6 months which is nearly half of sugar cane growing period. It is possible to cultivate two crops in a year. The sugar content of sugar beet is also considerably good. The above ground portion of the plant can be used as fodder as well. My question is, whether sugar beet can be an alternative / substitute for sugarcane in the future without affecting sugar production of the country? What are all the major constraints in promoting sugar beet? Please give your answer with justification. Many thanks in advance.
Just citing:
" The key advantages of sugar beet in comparison with sugarcane are well-known: a shorter growing cycle (around 5 months), lower water requirement (about 1/ 3rd to half of the water needed to grow sugar cane) and a slightly higher sugar (16-19% sucrose) and ethanol yield per acre (1000 to 1200 liters/ha). In addition, sugar beet is well known tolerant crop to soil salinity (Steven Cosyn et al., 2011). More over due to short growing season in comparision to sugar cane the sugar beet provides an opportunity of crop rotation to farmers, and is probably one of the efficient ways to maintain soil fertility and to control pests and disease. Finally, by processing sugar beet after or before the regular sugar cane crushing period, factories can stretch their operations over a longer period." (Anand SR, Vishwanatha J, Karegoudar AV, Rajkumar RH, Ambast SK. Effects of dates of sowing and planting geometry on yield and quality of sugar beet under saline Vertisol of Tungabhadra Project (TBP) area of Karnataka. Journal of Soil Salinity and Water Quality. 2013;5(1):56-9. )
" Significant efforts have been recently done to introduce sugar beet in regions where it has now a limited presence as a commercial crop. In field trials in India during 2007-2009 at ten sites beet yields of between 681 and 106 t/ha was achieved with sucrose content of 20% on average. However, perhaps the key obstacle to the rapid introduction to beet production and beet sugar processing in cane factories in tropics is the rather heavy capital investment to upgrade factories to allow them to process sugar beet. But the need to increase the sugar and ethanol production level for many developing countries, the need to diversify the crop portfolio to reduce production costs and to secure the supply in factories, as well as the extraordinary yield potential of sugar beet has increased the interest for the use of sugar beet in new markets"
(Cosyn S, Woude KV, Sauvenier X, Evrard JN. Sugar beet: a complement to sugar cane for sugar and ethanol production in tropical and subtropical areas. International Sugar Journal. 2011;113(1346):120-3. )
I am afraid that sugar beet diseases and pests would be the main probem for wide use of this crop in tropical climate.
I think it could possible to cultivate the tropical sugar beet in India. However, there would be the problem of infesting diseases, insects and many other problems. The sugar content will also be less than the temperate one due to exhaust weather in India. The main problem would be the seed production in the next generation. But you could be get added advantage in sugar beet as a short duration sugar crop (3 months) compared to traditionally adopted sugarcane (10 - 12 months), this will help to increase the cropping intensity at farmers field.
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