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Literature review on sugarcane production
Important of sugarcane
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Sugarcane
Sugarcane is the common name of a species of herb belonging to the grass family. The official classification of sugarcane is Saccharum officinarum, and it belongs to the family Gramineae. It is common in tropical and subtropical countries throughout the world. It can grow from eight to twenty feet tall, and is generally about 2 inches thick. Several different horticultural varieties are known, and they differ by their stem color and length (Anonymous, 1998).
The common sugarcane has been cultivated since ancient times. The most widely used form of cultivation is by stem cuttings, since many varieties do not produce fertile seeds (Microsoft, 1994). According to Helen Boyel, (1939) this is one of the many species of plants that would not survive without human intervention. It is a very easy, and profitable plant to grow, but does not naturally reproduce very effectively.
The sugarcane was one of the first "cash crops" of early colonial America. It grew plentifully in the southern states, and was a major source of income for many plantations. It is grown readily in the United States in Hawaii, Louisiana, Florida and Puerto Rico. The countries that produce the largest amounts of sugarcane are Brazil, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Mexico, India, and Australia (Microsoft, 1994).
Sugarcane cannot be easily harvested by machine, so for centuries it has been harvested by hand, using large machete like blades. For this reason sugarcane fields have very large amounts of farm hands, and are a major source of employment throughout South America, Central America, and even the Caribbean. In early America, when the plant was readily harvested, it was a major source of slavery in the south. However, with the advent of abolition, it was found that sugarcane could be imported cheaper than it could be grown (Microsoft, 1994). This is why the sugarcane industry in the United States has diminished so sharply since the Civil War.
The primary use for sugarcane is to process sugar, which can then be used in an infinite number of products. The type of sugar produced by sugarcane is called sucrose. This is the most important of all the sugars. Sucrose is used as a sweetening agent for foods and in the manufacture of cakes, candies, preservatives, soft drinks, alcohol, and numerous other foods. Although the use of sugar in the human diet is controversial, sucrose supplies about 13 percent of all energy that is derived from foods (Escalona, 1952).
Sugar was first grown in New Guinea around 9000 years ago, which New guinea traders trade cane stalks to different parts of the world. In the New world christopher columbus introduced cane sugar to caribbean islands. At first sugar was unknown in Europe but was changed when sugar trade first began. Sugar trade was driven by the factors of production land which provided all natural resources labor what provided human resources for work and capital which includes all the factories and the money that’s used to buy land. Consumer demand was why sugar trade continued to increase.
Slave labor is the final factor that drove the sugar trade and made it so successful. Slaves were the manual laborers on the plantations, doing the actual harvesting and boiling because the owner wasn’t there to do so (Document 8). Without the slaves working the farm, everything was pretty much useless. There is also a direct correlation between the number of slaves and the tons of sugar produced. This is shown in Document 9, where the island of Jamaica starts out with 45,000 slaves, and produces 4,782 tons of sugar. When the number of slaves increases by less than half to 74,500, the amount of sugar produced is more than tripled at 15, 972 tons. This clearly exhibits how slaves were essential to sugar
Slavery had a big impact on the market, but most of it was centered on the main slave crop, cotton. Primarily, the south regulated the cotton distribution because it was the main source of income in the south and conditions were nearly perfect for growing it. Cheap slave labor made it that much more profitable and it grew quickly as well. Since the development in textile industry in the north and in Britain, cotton became high in demand all over the world. The south at one point, was responsible for producing “eighty percent of the world’s cotton”. Even though the South had a “labor force of eighty-four percent working, it only produced nine percent of the nations manufactured goods”, (Davidson 246). This statistic shows that the South had an complete advantage in manpower since slavery wasn’t prohibited. In the rural South, it was easy for plantation owners to hire slaves to gather cotton be...
The plantation systems in the Caribbean were its most distinctive and characteristic economic form. These plantation systems were created in the New World during the early years of the sixteenth century and were mostly staffed with slaves imported from Africa. It was Spain that pioneered sugar cane, sugar making, African slave labour, and the plantation form in the Caribbean. Before long, within a century, the French and British became the world’s greatest makers and exporters of sugar. The film, Sugar Cane Alley, depicts the essence of a key transitional moment in French Caribbean history. It highlights the tribulations (daily efforts and working conditions) of many Noir sugar plantation workers in Martinique in the early 1930s. Hence,
the Portuguese had a sudden interest in Brazil because of French and Spanish invaders, and because of the economic downfall that was taking place in India. The Spanish were succeeding in Peru, which in turn made the Portuguese bitter, but the Portuguese still believed that Brazil had a value yet to be discovered. The thriving of Brazil finally came with the introduction of sugarcane during the mid-sixteenth century, but the Portuguese did not see much success until after 1570. Sugarcane trade was primarily in control of Muslims; prior to expanding their empires, the Europeans made a devastating political choice of expelling Moors from Europe, which in turn caused the Muslims to stop sugar trade with the Europeans. Therefore, sugar became
Sugar in its many forms is as old as the Earth itself. It is a sweet tasting thing for which humans have a natural desire. However there is more to sugar than its sweet taste, rather cane sugar has been shown historically to have generated a complex process of cultural change altering the lives of all those it has touched, both the people who grew the commodity and those for whom it was grown. Suprisingly, for something so desireable knowledge of sugar cane spread vey slow. First found in Guinea and first farmed in India (sources vary on this), knowledge of it would only arrive in Europe thousands of years later. However, there is more to the history of sugar cane than a simple story of how something was adopted piecemeal into various cultures. Rather the history of sugar, with regards to this question, really only takes off with its introduction to Europe. First exposed to the delights of sugar cane during the crusades, Europeans quickly acquired a taste for this sweet substance. This essay is really a legacy of that introduction, as it is this event which foreshadowed the sugar related explosion of trade in slaves. Indeed Henry Hobhouse in `Seeds of Change' goes so far as to say that "Sugar was the first dependance upon which led Europeans to establish tropical mono cultures to satisfy their own addiction." I wish, then, to show the repurcussions of sugar's introduction into Europe and consequently into the New World, and outline especially that parallel between the suga...
Geographically, sugar made its way around the world rather rapidly once it first left Indonesia. Sugar cane was first found in New Guinea around 8000 BC. One of the most significant causes that came out of sugar production was the Atlantic Slave Trade. “The vast majority of the African captives transported across the Atlantic, some 80 percent or more, ended up in Brazil and the Caribbean (Strayer 568).”
Despite the federal aid granted to sugar growers, not all sectors of agriculture devoted to growing sugar derivatives flourished. Domestic production of sugar cane increased steadily from 1982 onward, while sugar beet production stagnated (Knutson, 1985). Through time, the largest number of sugar beet farmers were concentrated in a specific West/Midwest region of the U.S. (Minnesota, North Dakota, Idaho) while sugar cane farmers were found in the Southeast, specifically Louisiana and Florida.
In the 1500’s through the 1700’s there were extravagant amounts of ships exporting the continent of Africa. Ships carrying cargo so precious and vital that it shaped the world forever. Millions and millions of slaves from all over the continent of Africa were being shipped over to Brazil and Cuba. There are many similarities and differences in slavery terms between Brazil and Cuba, primarily focusing on agricultural production. Sugar production was very important during this time, both Brazil and Cuba proposed in this production. The two countries shared more similarities in terms of the production of agriculture and what they used the slaves for. They had more differences as far as the history of their slavery production.
In the early years of China, the Chinese began a period of establishment in the world with ideas and teachings of new religions, changing powers, and building empires. In a nutshell the Chinese were progressing toward new technology, writings, and belief systems. The Chinese saw many dynasties come and go as well as many ups and downs experienced with societies over the course of history. As all nation’s go through change, the Chinese experienced changes from other lands far away and produced many concepts in which helped other realms to see change for themselves. The Chinese used many inventive innovations to prosper as an economic power and stabilize intellectually. Change mixed with innovation proved to be the roots of China’s success as a powerful nation to be reckoned with for the vast numbers appeared in China’s favor.
Slavery became an established activity in America by 1600’s. The slaves were mostly to provide free and cheap labor. Apart from America, slavery was practiced in other parts of the world throughout history, and in fact it can be traced back to the time of the ancient civilization. With industrial revolution especially with the rise of sugar plantations, the slaves were used to grow sugar in the periods from 1100.This intensified between 1400 and 1500 when Portugal and Spain ventured into sugar growing in the Eastern Atlantic regions. The growth of the plantations required labor, hence African slaves were bought from Africa, to provide labor.
Secondly land was a major thing that drove the sugar trade. In document 1, its shows a map of the West Indies. The West Indies is where a lot of the sugar was grown, Why? Because in order to grow sugar you need hot, humid climate, the West Indies have that hot, humid climate to produce sugar.
After the discovery of sugarcane from the Arabs, European nations began establishing plantation communities throughout the Americas which were rich with sugarcane. With the creation of these plantations, which focused on mass production of various products, a large amount of cheap human labor was necessary in keeping up with production quotas. Therefore, the Europeans found the best option was to import boatloads of African slaves, who were skilled, non Christian, and immune to many of the diseases that the Native Americans had previously perished from. Mexico, under the rule of the Spanish at the time, had previously relied on Aztecs acquired from warfare for human labor. However, as foreign diseases started to contaminate the enslaved in unsanitary conditions, and the Aztecs began to perish at uncontrollable speeds, the Spanish had had to rely on slaves exported from West Africa to fulfill their agricultural needs in plantations, and their economical needs in mines.
...ince, there is a need to use for advanced novel methods of culturing plant to furnish new means for quickly propagating,conserving of endangered species and also introducing exotic plants. The production of high quality planting material of exotic nature propagated from vegetative parts through tissue culture has created new opportunities in global trading. The exotic plants are advantageous for farmers;growers; nursery owners & rural employment. As exotic plants are restricted to their natural environment; the main benefit of tissue culture technology lies on production of high quality & uniform planting material that can be multiplied on a year round basis. The plant selected for such purpose is Stevia rabuadiana Bertoni. Objectives of study:
Cesar J, Ayala. 1999. American Sugar Kingdom. The plantation economy of the Spanish Caribbean. University of North Carolina press.