The Hindu Business Line : Sugar beet tamed to survive tropical climes

Sweet tuber
Compared to sugarcane, TSB has a shorter harvest cycle, consumes less water.
It can be grown in saline soils, and replenishes fields.
10 other factories in Maharashtra are experimenting with the crop this year.

Our Bureau

Pune, Sept. 13 The sweet tuber — sugar beet — hitherto cultivated strictly in temperate conditions, appears to have been tamed. In a global first of sorts, it has been tropicalised to be grown commercially in hotter climes and when compared to the sugarcane, has a shorter harvest cycle, consumes less water to grow, and yields over half as much sugar, weight to weight.

Developed and introduced in India for the first time in the world by agro-business company Syngenta, the cultivation of tropical sugar beet (TSB) on 2,000 acres, and subsequent conversion into sugar and bio-ethanol, were undertaken as two independent pilot projects in Maharashtra last year. Ten other factories in Maharashtra are experimenting with the crop this year.

Mr Dilip Gokhale, global head of bio-fuels development at Syngenta International, maintains that in addition to other advantages, TSB can also be grown in saline soils and replenishes fields while sugarcane depletes it. “Maharashtra loses 1,000 acres per year because of excessive cane production. We believe that it can be reclaimed by TSB,” he asserts.

Content, harvest

The case for TSB seems sweet. It has a sugar content of 18-20 per cent, while that of the best sugarcane in the country grown at Kolhapur is 14 per cent. It is ready for harvesting in four to five months, saves 1,000 tankers of water per hectare, and has a higher sugar recovery.

The pulp can be used as cattle feed and can be grown in tandem with other crops as well. Cost of production is Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 per acre and yield is pegged anywhere between 25 tonnes to 60 tonnes per acre.

The flip side is that TSB is not a sow-it-and-forget-it crop. It requires nurturing in the early months and regular sprays of insecticide. And as it does not produce bagasse, co-generation is ruled out.

At Baramati-based Harneshwar Agro Products, Power and Yeast India Ltd, the success of the pilot project to make bio-ethanol from TSB has impelled Chairman and Managing Director, Mr B.S. Chaware, to up the area from 1,700 acres last year to 5,000 acres this time round.

The second project was undertaken by the Samarth Co-operative Sugar Mill, Jalna, and supported by the Vasantdada Sugar Institute (VSI). Here the beet was grown on 125 acres and sugar produced from an 80:20 mix of sugarcane and TSB extract.

Mill run

Says Mr Shivajirao Deshmukh, Director General VSI, “We found TSB grows best during the winter season. And this crop is ready just at the end of the crushing season for sugarcane. So the mills can run for a few months longer.” The existing mills can be used to process the juice, with the addition of some machinery that washes, slices and extracts the juice, he added. Syngenta took ten years to develop TSB, and has invested over $10 million in the project. The Indian arm of the $8.1 billion company has two main businesses — crop protection and seeds — and reported sales of Rs 940 crore for the year ended December 2006.

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