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The Sugar Cane Plantations
inconjunction wth
the Niger State Government in Nigeria is a part to fuel
raw-material for the Fuel Ethanol Plant and the Sugar Plant.
The Sugar Plantation spread across
_______ hectares of land in Niger State is in close proximity
the Fuel Ethanol Plant and the Sugar Plant. All the raw material
required for the project is expected to be cultivated in
our own farm land.
About Sugar Cane
Plantation
 Sugarcane or Sugar cane (Saccharum)
is a genus of 6 to 37 species (depending on taxonomic
interpretation) of tall perennial grasses (family Poaceae, tribe
Andropogoneae), native to warm temperate to tropical regions
of the Old World. They have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that
are rich in sugar and measure 2 to 6 meters tall. All of the
sugarcane species interbreed, and the major commercial cultivars
are complex hybrids.
About 200
countries grow the crop to produce 1,324 million tons (more than
six times the amount of sugar beet produced). As of the year
2005, the world's largest producer of sugar cane by far is
Brazil. Uses of sugar cane include the production of sugar,
Falernum, molasses, rum, soda, and ethanol for fuel. The
bagasse that remains after sugarcane crushing may be burned
to provide both heat energy, used in the mill, and electricity,
which is typically sold to the consumer electricity grid. It may
also, because of its high cellulose content, be used as raw
material for paper and cardboard, branded as Environmentally
friendly as it is made from a by-product of sugar production
Sugarcane
cultivation requires a tropical or subtropical climate, with a
minimum of 600 mm (24 in) of annual moisture. It is one of the
most efficient
photosynthesizers in the plant kingdom, able to convert up
to 2 percent of incident solar energy into biomass.
Sugarcane is
propagated from cuttings, rather than from seeds; although
certain types still produce seeds, modern methods of stem
cuttings have become the most common method of reproduction.
Each cutting must contain at least one bud, and the cuttings are
usually planted by hand. Once planted, a stand of cane can be
harvested several times; after each harvest, the cane sends up
new stalks, called ratoons. Usually, each successive
harvest gives a smaller yield, and eventually the declining
yields justify replanting.
Sugarcane is
harvested by hand or mechanically. Hand harvesting accounts for
more than half of the world's production, and is especially
dominant in the developing world. When harvested by hand, the
field is first set on fire. The fire spreads rapidly, burning
away dry dead leaves, and killing any venomous snakes hiding in
the crop, but leaving the water-rich stalks and roots unharmed.
With Cane knifes or Machetes, harvesters then cut the standing
cane just above the ground. A skilled harvester can cut 500 kg
of sugarcane in an hour.
It is very
important that sugarcane of the appropriate variety is available
to our sugar mill and Ethanol Plant at the appropriate time and
in sufficient quantities. Hence, sugarcane harvesting and
development are fundamental to our business. In view of the
same, we have a separate department with experienced personnel,
who handle sugarcane harvesting and sugarcane development. This
enables us to get an estimate of the sugarcane available for
crushing and plan our operations accordingly.
 Our sugarcane development programme is planned to, inter alia,
educate the farmers regarding modern agricultural practices in
sugarcane cultivation, supply of seeds, replacement of inferior
sugarcane varieties with varieties which are high yielding, have
high sucrose content and are early maturing, encourage measures
to eliminate diseases and insects/pests in sugarcane, use
fertilisers based on soil testing, contributing for construction
and repair of link roads and culverts, maintenance of drainage
systems, etc, for the development of infrastructure to promote
sugarcane cultivation.
We use information technology for classification and indenting
of sugarcane in our sugarcane farming system. Such systems
enable us to access details about the land holdings, area under
sugarcane cultivation, last few years cultivation of
sugarcane to the factory, etc, which are used to plan sugarcane
procurement and sugarcane development. Farmers are advised on
sowing of the sugarcane varieties based on details collected by
us on land type, soil details, etc.
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