Home ›› 04 Oct 2021 ›› Editorial
Sugar is one of the oldest commodities in the world. It has been offered as a food offering to Pagan gods, it has been sculpted into exquisite figures for medieval Egyptian rulers and it has been stirred into the tea and coffee cups of early modern Europeans.
Way back in 510 BC the Emperor Darius of Persia invaded India where he found “the reed which gives honey without bees”. The secret of sugar was kept a closely guarded secret whilst the finished product was exported. When the Arab peoples in the seventh century AD invaded Persia in 642 AD, they found sugar cane being grown and learnt how sugar was made. As their expansion continued, they started sugar production in other lands that they conquered including North Africa and Spain. Sugar was only discovered by Western Europeans as a result of the Crusades in the 11th century AD and sugar, as a commodity, was first recorded in England in 1069.
According to Banglapedia from very ancient times Bangladesh has been growing sugarcane for making gud or sukker or khandeswari. Bengal was well known for quality sugar as far back as in the 16th century. The East India Company exported large quantities of sugar from Bengal every year. The volume was 820,186 maunds (1 maund = 37.65 kg) in 1795 and 3,324,168 maunds in 1805. Interestingly excessive production of palm sugar or gud caused decline in production of cane sugar towards 1840. But it soon picked up again.
Sugar, technically speaking sucrose, is a disaccharide made up of the two monosaccharides—fructose and glucose. Due to its chemical structure, sugar (but not its constituent parts) will crystallise into a solid, which has had implications for confectionary as well as transportation and storage over the millennia. The prime source of refined sugar today is sugar cane. Though beet sugar is also popular in some countries.
Unfortunately, sugarcane has been a somewhat neglected crop in the remarkable success story that is Bangladesh agriculture. However, that may change soon. According to a report published in this newspaper on Thursday Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque called for using modern technology to increase both sugarcane cultivation and sugar production. At present, Bangladesh can meet only about five per cent of its annual demand of 1.4 million tonnes. Naturally the country depends heavily on imported sugar to meet its annual. Sugarcane and sugar are obviously are closely interrelated and the authorities concerned should take necessary measures to boost the sector in order to lessen sugar import. Bangladesh Sugarcrop Research Institute (BSRI) has so far developed 48 varieties of sugarcane to meet the growing demand.
Sugar has been a bittersweet problem for the Bangladesh economy. The state-owned sugar mills have been producing each kilogram of sugar for as much as Tk 324 although the product's market price is only T k60. Sugar produced by the heavily subsidised mills fails to meet the local demand mainly due to a scarcity of sugarcane, forcing the government to procure the rest from the private sector.
BSRI has developed and recommended a good numbers of sugarcane production technologies from planting to harvesting. The technologies include releasing of a large number of high yielding, high sugar content, diseases and pest resistant sugarcane varieties, intercropping with sugarcane, spaced transplanting technology, ratoon management technology, diseases and pest management technology, updating the fertilizer dose for 12 agro-ecological zones and development of some important implements for sugarcane cultivation.
According to economists, Bangladesh’s sugar mills are uncompetitive mostly for their high production cost and the import of cheap sugar has turned their condition from bad to worse. The government has been actively pursuing potential foreign investors since 2019, more than a year before it suspended cane crushing in six of the 15 state-owned sugar mills in December 2020, but it is yet to find any prospective party interested in modernising the sugar industry.
Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation was established on 1 July 1976. It is in charge of 15 state run sugar mills in Bangladesh.
Sugarcane is grown in almost all areas in Bangladesh, but most of it is produced in Rajshahi, Natore, Pabna, Kuhstia, Chuadanga, Panchagar, Joypurhat and Thakurgaon districts. Because of available raw materials, most of the sugar mills are located in these areas. Cultivation of sugar cane crop is carried out mainly for crushing purpose to obtain sugar, jaggery, molasses and other products. By-products like alcohol used in pharmaceutical industry, ethanol used as a fuel, bagasse used for paper-making and chipboard manufacturing and press mud used as a rich source of organic matter that adds to soil fertility are derived after cane is crushed. Sugarcane is the current benchmark first-generation feedstock for efficient biofuel production.
The world's biggest sugarcane producers in order are Brazil, India, China, Thailand, Pakistan, Mexico, Colombia, Australia, Argentina, and the Philippines. Bangladesh should co-operate with them and try to use their expertise to increase the sugarcane yield. In recent times, rising production cost has been causing price hikes for sugar.
Nowadays, the demand for naturally produced sugar has been upset by the emergence of synthetic and extremely cheap white sugar - refined on a mass-production scale by private enterprises with raw materials imported from other countries. Moreover, such artificial sugar products are extremely hazardous to human body, causing various types of cancer and heart diseases.
More scientific research is necessary for improving the variety of sugarcane that will likely to reduce the gap of per acre yield between Bangladesh and other sugarcane producing countries. Research priorities and future thrust area should be to develop and promote mechanization in planting, interculture and harvesting. Authorities need to focus on development of specific agronomical practices for promising sugarcane genotypes suitable for different agroclimatic regions in Bangladesh. Emphasis should be given to proper management of sugarcane diseases and adoption of healthy seed production programme.
Sugar has got a bad name in the recent years. It is blamed for causing an assortment of diseases. However, many researchers also concluded that these diseases occur most often when high sugar intake is combined with excess calories, and that the effects on health are "more likely" due to sugar intake increasing the chance of excess calories, not the impact of sugar alone. Meanwhile, there is also a growing argument that demonising a single food is dangerous – and causes confusion that risks us cutting out vital foods. It is unclear that sugar actually causes heart disease or diabetes. Luc Tappy, professor of physiology at the University of Lausanne, is one of many scientists who argue that the main cause of diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure is excess calorie intake, and that sugar is simply one component of this
Like most other state-run entities burdened with losses, wastefulness and inefficiency, the sugar mills have also earned the white elephant tag, requiring hefty funds from the government exchequer every year to pay for their mounting losses. The government must take concrete measures to reduce losses by increasing their production capacity. Corruption and inefficiencies must not be tolerated at all. Sugar mills cannot incur losses forever and a way out must be found. The sugar mills must be modernized. And the private sector should be encouraged to invest more in the sector.
The writer is Senior Assistant Editor at The Business Post
