Introduction

• belongs to family chenopodiaceae is the biennial crop.
• The plant is most efficient converter of solar energy into the stored food materials.
• It is the important sugar producing crop in which sugar is stored in its roots.
• It accounts for nearly21.8% of world’s sugar production
• On an average the sugar containing of beet root is 15-16%

Economic importance

• The root of sugar beet contains about 75% water 20% sugar in the form of sucrose and 5% pulp.
• The pulp is soluble in water and contains cellulose ,hemicellulose and lignin.
• Dry pulp contains 60% carbohydrate and 10% crude protein thus can be used as important livestock feed.
• The mixture of molasses and pulp improves the palatability of the feed.
• Beets tops are highly nutritious cattle feed and are known to increase the milk yield of cow.
• It is potential source of ethanol which is now blended in automobile fuel.

Origin and History

• Sugar beet originated in Mediterranean region.
• The wild Beta maritima an annual occurring in the coastal region in the Mediterranean and Asia is the common ancestor of several cultivated beets of today.
• Its medicinal value was first reported by German physician Hippocrates.
• The use of sugarbeet for the extraction of sugar was first to be reported in 1747.
• In 1746 German Chemist Marggraf found that the crystal formed from sugarbeet has physical and chemical properties with those of the sugarcane.
• Franz Karl Achard discovered that white skinned and fleshy type beet has the sweetest test.
• Louis Vilmorin in France selected the progeny test method and raised the sugar content from 7.5% to 16-17%
• By 1880 sugarbeet had practically as high percentage as varieties of today.

Area and distribution

• Sugarbeet is essentially a crop of temperate region.
• It is commercially grown in European countries, U.S.A and Canada in North America, Chile in South America, Egypt and Morocco in Africa, China ,Iran, Japan, Pakistan ,Syria in Asia.
• It is cultivated over an area of 4.6million ha with the total production of 228.4 million tons of beet.
• According to FAO(2011) the leading producer of sugarbeet are Russia, France, USA, Germany, and Ukraine.
• The average world productivity of sugarbeet is 58.2t/ha.