Sindh is blessed with suitable climatic conditions for growing sugar-cane in its central and southern crop zones. Sugar-cane is a major cash crop in Sindh and is vital to the provincial and national GDP. Sindh produces a sizable share of the national GDP, and a ubstantial portio of which comes sugar-cane.

In Sindh, sugar-cane is grown near the Sukkur and Kotri barrages using vast acreage, in both autumn and spring seasons. The autumn sugar-cane crop gives better yield than spring one, due to proper crop establishment and growth under the influence of moderate heat and the monsoon rains.

The southern districts of Sindh including Hyderabad, Badin and Thatta are considered sugar-cane areas where the climatic conditions favour higher yields. The yield obtained of sugar-cane in Sindh is 66.0 tones/ha, which is higher than Punjab’s 40.3 tones/ha and NWFP’s 46.3 tones/ha. Clearly Sindh’s climate and soil is more suited to sugar-cane.

Sugar beet is a non-traditional crop, which needs cool climate to grow. It is considered an alternative to traditional sugar crops, but the Sindh climate is not suitable to mass sugar beet production. The agronomic practices including soil selection, seed rate, varieties, sowing time and method, fertilizer and irrigation requirements, weeding and interculturing harvest and processing of sugar beet for the milling purposes, are still unknown to farmers.

Sindh faces an agricultural crisis due to extreme shortage of water. The cultivation of sugar beet may adversely impact Sindh’s crucial wheat crop. A reduction in wheat yields would have a negative impact on Sindh’s economy. The only alternative is to continue growing sugar-cane, which does not conflict with wheat production.

Clearly sugarcane is an excellent crop with may benefits, but, due to water shortage, the growing is not likely to proceed well.

Sugar beet is promoted chiefly on the basis that it requires less irrigation than sugarcane. This is a false claim, and the costs of sugar beet outweigh the benefits.

The NWFP has successfully adopted sugar beet, where it is grown as a winter crop, and its cropping pattern in Mardan provides better conditions for sugar beet growth and production as it is the area where rain fall is better and soil moisture is conserved. NWFP has established infrastructure, including crushing units and sugar beet mills, to cope with farmers problems.

Sugar beet seed is not produced in Pakistan due to breeding and agro-climatic problems. The seed is supplied by private agency either through the government or directly to the growers.We should advise farmers in Sindh not to accept sugar beet seeds from private sources. It would be a folly for them to grow this crop without infrastructure to support it.

Sugarcane can be used to produce a wide variety of goods like the granular sugar, candy, gur, molasses, desi sugar, sugar-cane juice, sugarcane tops for fodder, trash for mulching, baggase for making paper. Sugar beet is only good for producing sugar, and is not suitable for additional uses.

Thus, the incompatible climate, poor water supply, and lack of supportive infrastructure make sugar beet a poor alternative to sugarcane. Add to this a dependency on foreign seed suppliers, the few uses and the perishability of the crop, and sugar beet becomes even less attractive.