Importance Of Sugar In Pakistan

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) is a member of poaceae family. It is known to be grown in 70 countries around the world, spread over 5 continents (Chatenet et al., 2001). It is the main source of sugar worldwide contributing up to 70% in global sugar production (Shah et al., 2009). Sugarcane also lies in the list of major cash crops of Pakistan, the biggest consumer of sugar in the South Asia. Nearly 99% of the sugar is obtained exclusively from sugarcane in Pakistan. Its value addition in the GDP is 0.7% whereas it accounts for 3.4 % in agriculture sector of the country (Pakistan agriculture research, 2015). It is grown on an area of 1.1 million hectares in the country with an average yield of 57 t/ha-1 which sums to annual production of 66.5 million tonnes (Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, 2015). Total area of sugarcane cultivation in Pakistan is 4th largest in the world, but it only ranks the country on 14th position in production of this crop (Pakistan agriculture research, 2015). In spite of the fact that average cane yield has been increasing in the country over the years, Pakistan still produces lowest average yield as well as sugar recovery among the cane growing countries {Naqvi, 2005 #154}.

Thus, there is strong need to emphasize on sugarcane varietal improvement program in Pakistan to explore the full potential of this crop and to get comparable yield and sugar content for sugar industry as well as farming community. Varietal development program in sugarcane is