Here is your free sample essay on Sugarcane

Sugarcane belongs to the family of grasses. It is the most important sugar giving plant. The plant belongs to the tropical regions of Asia. From here, it was taken to the Mediterranean lands by the Moors in the 8th century.

Thereafter, its plant was further taken to Brazil and West Indies. Later, from these two regions, sugarcane cultivation was introduced in the Americas.

A combination of geographical and economic factors are required for sugarcane cultivation. The most important factors are:

1. Sugarcane is a tropical plant. It needs hot and humid climatic conditions. It needs temperature between 21°-27°C throughout the growing season, which is quite long, 11-12 months, in India and 18-19 months is Hawaii.

The plant requires abundance of well distributed rainfall. It should be over 125 cms. The deficiency of rainfall can be made good by irrigation. The plant needs a relatively dry, sunny spell at the time of ripening and harvesting.

2. Sugarcane is grown in a variety of soils.Deep rich well drained but water retentive fertile soils are the best.

3. It is a robber crop. It eats up the fertility of the soil as such frequent use of manures and fertilizers is essential for a healthy crop return.

4. A large supply of cheap labour is required for harvesting the crop and preparing sugarcane for the market.

5. Sea breeze is beneficial to the plant. The cane plantations situated close to the sea give higher yields.

6. The use of pesticides, availability of market and development of means of transportation are some of the other factors which encourage cane cultivation.

India has the largest area under sugarcane in the world. It ranks second in production in the world next only to Brazil. About 3.8 million hectares of land is given to cane culture.

The country contributes 21.3% of the world production. In 1997, India produced a concentration of 265 million metric tonnes of cane. Although cane cultivation is carried on in different parts of the country yet there are two major regions:

(i) Northern region.

(ii) Southern Plateau region and coastal plains of A.P and T.N.

The Sutlej-Ganga Plain from Punjab to Bihar covers 51% of land area under cane and produces 60% of India’s cane.

Area and production are as under:

The northern region of the country produces about 70% of India’s cane. The main cane producing states are Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Haryana and Punjab. Uttar Pradesh is the leader in respect of cane production.

Cultivation of cane in the northern region is because of favourable climate, level topography, development of irrigation, introduction of new varieties of cane, use of manures and fertilizers, availability of plenty of cheap labour and market because of dense population.

Sugarcane is an important crop in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. India’s cane is of thin variety. It contains less of juice. The per acre yield is less in comparison to other cane producing countries of the world. It is because of:

(i) comparatively poor methods of farming

(ii) lack of use of manures and fertilizers

(iii) uncertain weather conditions

(iv) Poor irrigation facilities

(v) Poor varieties of cane

(vi) Small, fragmented and non-contigeous land holdings.

(vii) Lack of use of farm technology and management. The state wise and their districtswise distribution is as under:

1. U.P.:

It is the leading sugar producing state of India. Cane is grown in two belts. () The Terai Belt. Rampur, Sitapur, Pilibhit, Gorakhpur, Kheri districts. (») The Doab area from Saharanpur, Muzzafarnagar, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Baghpat districts to Varanasi and Allahabad.

2. Maharastra:

Nasik, Ahmednagar, Satara, Pune, Sangli, Kolhapur, Sholapur districts.

3. Karnataka:

Belgaum, Ballary, Tumkur and Raichur districts.

(4)Andhra Pradesh:

(i) Godavari-Krishna delta (ii) Coastal districts like East & West Godavari, Vishakhapatnam, Krishna etc.

5. Punjab:

Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Sangrur, Patiala, Moga, etc.

1. Haryana

Rohtak, Gurgaon, Sonepat, Panipat, Karnal, Ambala, etc.

2. West Bengal

Birbhum, Hoogly, Nadia, Malda 24 parganas etc.

3. Gujarat

Bhavnagar, Surat, Jamnagar etc.

9. Orissa:

Koraput, Cuttack, Puri, Sambalpur etc.

4. Tamil Nadu:

Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Ramnathapuram etc.

For the purpose of research, a sugarcane research institute has been set up at Coimbatore (T.N.)