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India is the fourth major sugar producing country in the world, the first three being
Russia, Brazil and Cuba. Sugar industry occupies an important place among organized
industries in India. Sugar industry, one of the major agro-based industrial in India, has
been instrumental in resource mobilization, employment generation, income generation
and creating social infrastructure in rural areas. Indeed, sugar industry has facilitated and
accelerated pace of rural industrialization. At present, there are 571registered sugar
factories having capital investment of Rs. 50,000 crores and annual production capacity
of 180 lakh metric tonnes (ISMA Report, 2004). The annual turnover of industry is to the
tune of Rs.25,000 crores. The central and state governments receive annually Rs. 2500
crore as excise duty, purchase tax, and cess. More than 4.50 core farmers are engaged in
sugarcane cultivation and about 5 lakh rural people have got direct employment in the
industry. Sugar industry has brought socioeconomic changes in rural India by way of
facilitating entrepreneurial activities such as dairies, poultries, fruits and vegetable
processing, and providing educational, health and credit facilities.
Meaning of Sugar:
Sugar is a term for a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and
fructose[1] characterized by a sweet flavor. In food, sugar almost exclusively refers to sucrose,
which primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet. Other sugars are used in industrial food
preparation, but are usually known by more specific names—glucose, fructose or fruit sugar,
to raise blood glucose levels more quickly than starch, but results from more than twenty studies
demonstrate that sugar and starch cause blood glucose to rise at similar rates. This finding
showed that controlling all carbohydrates is necessary for controlling blood glucose levels in
diabetics, the idea behind carbohydrate counting.[3] Many experts believe that eating too much
sugar does not cause diabetes,[4][5][6][7][8][9] although excessive calories from sugar can lead to
obesity, which may increase the risk of diabetes.[5][8] However, a 2010 meta-analysis of eleven
studies involving 310,819 participants and 15,043 cases of type 2 diabetes[10] found that "SSBs
[sugar-sweetened beverages] may increase the risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes
not only through obesity but also by increasing dietary glycemic load, leading to insulin
Sugars such as sucrose are known to contribute to tooth decay, and it is impossible to develop
cavities in the absence of fermentable carbohydrates.[citation needed] The role of starches is disputed.
Lower rates of tooth decay have been seen in hereditary fructose intolerance.[11]
History of sugar:
Sugar has been produced in the Indian subcontinent[12] since ancient times. It was not plentiful or
cheap in early times—honey was more often used for sweetening in most parts of the world.
During his campaign in India, Alexander the Great was surprised to taste the sweetening agent
tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia.[13] Different species likely originated in different
locations with S. barberi originating in India and S. edule and S. officinarum coming from New
Guinea.[13]
However, sugar remained relatively unimportant until the Indians discovered methods of turning
sugarcane juice into granulated crystals that were easier to store and to transport.[14] Crystallized
sugar was discovered by the time of the Imperial Guptas, around 5th century AD.[14] Indian
sailors, consumers of clarified butter and sugar, carried sugar by various trade routes.[14]
Traveling Buddhist monks brought sugar crystallization methods to China.[15] During the reign of
Harsha (r. 606–647) in North India, Indian envoys in Tang China taught sugarcane cultivation
methods after Emperor Taizong of Tang (r. 626–649) made his interest in sugar known, and
China soon established its first sugarcane cultivation in the seventh century.[16] Chinese
documents confirm at least two missions to India, initiated in 647 AD, for obtaining technology
for sugar-refining.[17] In South Asia, the Middle East and China, sugar became a staple of
During the Muslim Agricultural Revolution, Arab entrepreneurs adopted sugar production
techniques from India and then refined and transformed them into a large-scale industry. Arabs
set up the first cane sugar mills, refineries, factories and plantations. The Arabs and Berbers
spread the cultivation of sugar throughout the Arab Empire and across much of the Old World,
including Western Europe after they conquered the Iberian Peninsula in the eighth century AD.
[18]
Ponting traces the spread of the cultivation of sugarcane from its introduction into
Mesopotamia, then the Levant and the islands of the eastern Mediterranean, especially Cyprus,
by the 10th century.[19] He also notes that it spread along the coast of East Africa to reach
Zanzibar.[19]
Crusaders brought sugar home with them to Europe after their campaigns in the Holy Land,
where they encountered caravans carrying "sweet salt". Early in the 12th century, Venice
acquired some villages near Tyre and set up estates to produce sugar for export to Europe, where
it supplemented honey as the only other available sweetener.[20] Crusade chronicler William of
Tyre, writing in the late 12th century, described sugar as "very necessary for the use and health
of mankind".[21]
In August 1492 Christopher Columbus stopped at La Gomera in the Canary Islands, for wine and
water, intending to stay only four days. He became romantically involved with the Governor of
the island, Beatriz de Bobadilla y Ossorio, and stayed a month. When he finally sailed she gave
him cuttings of sugarcane, which became the first to reach the New World.
More recently it is manufactured in very large quantities in many countries, largely from sugar
cane and sugar beet. In processed foods it has increasingly been supplanted by corn syrup.