Occurrence & Locations

Detailed information about where Sugar cane is found across Nigeria

Bwari central

Abuja State • Bwari LGA

2019

Location Details:

Bwari is a district and an area council in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria. The original inhabitants of the town are the Gbagyi speaking people. The paramount ruler is the Esu who is otherwise known as Sa-bwaya.

Specifications:

Unspecified

Estimated Reserves:

-

Coordinates: 9.281029°N, 7.385986°E

Kura

Kano State • Kura LGA

2019

Location Details:

Kura is a Local Government Area in Kano State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Kura. It has an area of 206 km² and a population of 144,601

Specifications:

Unspecifield

Estimated Reserves:

10,000 tonnes per annum

Coordinates: 11.784167°N, 8.417695°E

Badeggi

Niger State • Katcha LGA

2019

Location Details:

Badeggi is the home of National Cereals Research Institute Where Most of the rice, Sugarcane and other cereals in Niger state is produced

Specifications:

Unspecifield

Estimated Reserves:

1,150 million tonnes per annum.

Coordinates: 9.056800°N, 6.143400°E

Overview

Sugarcane belongs to the grass family (Poaceae). It is a tropical, perennial grass that forms lateral shoots at the base to produce multiple stems, typically three to four metres high and about five cm in diameter The main product of sugarcane is sucrose, which accumulates in the stalk internodes. A mature stalk is typically composed of 11–16% fiber, 12–16% soluble sugars, 2–3% non-sugars, and 63–73% water. Sugarcane is sensitive to climate, soil type, irrigation, fertilizers, insects, disease control, varieties, and the harvest period. The average yield of cane stalk is 60–70 tonnes per hectare per year. However, this figure can vary between 30 and 180 tonnes per hectare depending on knowledge and crop management approach used in sugarcane cultivation. Sugarcane is a cash crop, but it is also used as livestock fodder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarcane

Uses & Applications

Sucrose as raw material in food and Beverage Industries
Production of ethanol.
Livestock feed
Confectioneries and Bakery products
Raw material for paper and cardboard
Fuel
molasses
Bagasse

Processing

	Harvesting Sugar cane is harvested by chopping down the stems but leaving the roots so that it re-grows in time for the next crop. Harvest times tend to be during the dry season and the length of the harvest ranges from as little as 2 ½ months up to 11 months. The cane is taken to the factory: often by truck or rail wagon but sometimes on a cart pulled by a bullock or a donkey!

	Extraction The first stage of processing is the extraction of the cane juice. In many factories the cane is crushed in a series of large roller mills: similar to a mangle [wringer] which was used to squeeze the water out of clean washing a century ago. The sweet juice comes gushing out and the cane fibre is carried away for use in the boilers. In other factories a diffuser is used as is described for beet sugar manufacture. Either way the juice is pretty dirty: the soil from the fields, some small fibres and the green extracts from the plant are all mixed in with the sugar.

Evaporation
The factory can clean up the juice quite easily with slaked lime (a relative of chalk) which settles out a lot of the dirt so that it can be sent back to the fields. Once this is done, the juice is thickened up into a syrup by boiling off the water using steam in a process called evaporation. Sometimes the syrup is cleaned up again but more often it just goes on to the crystal-making step without any more cleaning. The evaporation is undertaken in order to improve the energy efficiency of the factory.

Boiling
The syrup is placed into a very large pan for boiling, the last stage. In the pan even more water is boiled off until conditions are right for sugar crystals to grow Once the crystals have grown the resulting mixture of crystals and mother liquor is spun in centrifuges to separate the two, rather like washing is spin dried. The crystals are then given a final dry with hot air before being stored ready for despatch.

Storage
The final raw sugar forms a sticky brown mountain in the store and looks rather like the soft brown sugar found in domestic kitchens. It could be used like that but usually it gets dirty in storage and has a distinctive taste which most people don't want. That is why it is refined .Additionally, because one cannot get all the sugar out of the juice, there is a sweet by-product made: molasses. This is usually turned into a cattle food or is sent to a distillery where alcohol is made. http://www.sucrose.com/lcane.html

Investment Opportunities

The world demand for sugar is the primary driver of sugarcane agriculture. Cane accounts for 80% of sugar produced; most of the rest is made from sugar beets. Sugarcane predominantly grows in the tropical and subtropical regions, and sugar beet predominantly grows in colder temperate regions of the world.

In 2012 Nigeria imported sugar worth 517,222,527 million Dollars with a per capita consumption of 6.6Kg- Raw value. In addition to raw sugar, sugarcane can be processed into a number of products, which if produced locally can save the country enormous amount of foreign exchange. These products include ethanol, molasses, bagasse, glycerin e.t.c. With the privatisation of sugar-producing companies, the Nigerian sugar industry has witnessed the rise of domestic sugar production to around 100,000 tons in 2007/2008, up from 80,000 in 2006/2007. With overall sugar consumption in the region of 1.5 million tons, Nigeria is the largest consumer of sugar in Africa apart from South Africa, and the industry is still dependent on raw sugar imports. Ninety (90%) of Nigeria’s sugar is, however, refined in the country, opening the door to increased exports of refined sugar.

The Nigerian government encourages local value addition by maintaining a duty differential of 50% between imports of refined sugar and raw sugar and granting five year tax holidays to refineries

With growing population, the demand for sugar and sugar products is expected to rise but production seems to have stagnated for quite a while. Public and private investment in the sector is very low. Much of sugar produced in the country is from Bacita in Kwara State and Numan in Adamawa State. Dangote and BUA have joined in sugar cane production and sugar refining. However, the number of refining factories are still inadequate to cater for Nigeria’s population and export to other countries in Africa, especially the West African Sub-region.