Study and changing the payment system of sugar content from linear to regressive equation in the autumn sowing sugar beet

The objective of this experiment was to study and changing the payment system of sugar beet in the autumn sowing from a linear to regressive equation for sugar content of 10 to 24 percentages based on the technical quality and recoverable sugar in the factory. During the campaign (from 28 April to 27 June 2007) of Ahvaz sugar factory as a represent of autumn sowing factory in Iran, 163 samples were taken randomly by four hours intervals from the delivery vehicles. From each truck with the capcity of 17 tons beet, one sample of approximately 40 beet roots as representative of the delivery was taken in the tare house. All beet roots washed, weighted and sawed by multiple blade saws machine and sub sample of appropriate amount of 300 g pulp was selected and homogenized for the extraction. In each sample, sugar content, water content, marc, brix, reducing sugars, sodium, potassium, amino nitrogen, molasses sugars and extraction coefficient of sugar were determined. Also, the results of all 4048 delivery vehicles during the whole campaign, belonging to five contractors were analyzed statistically for the traits of sugar content, soil tare, sugar beet price per tone and the paid price per vehicle. The results showed that mean sugar content (SC) of all delivery vehicles was 12.84 percent with the standard deviation (SD) of 0.847 percent, which the minimum and maximum sugar contents were 10 and 15.20 persent respectively. The mean sugar content of Ahvaz factory was 4 unites less than the base price and 5.5 unites less than the average SC of country in the 2007 campaign (18.29 percent). Mean soil tare of the delivery vehicles to the Ahvaz factory (which estimated visually) was 11.92 percent with the SD of 0.847 percent, and the minimum of 2 and maximum of 50 percent. The mean soil tare of Ahvaz factory was 9 unites greater than the country average soil tare in the 2007 campaign (about 3% for 4,282,805 tones of beets). The technical quality results showed that mean water content of delivery beets of autumn sowing in Khozestan province was 79% which in comparison to normal beet (75% water content or 25% dray matter) is 4% higher. Relative weight of scalp part in the storage root was about 7%, but the scalp was not removed from the storage root by growers (although it may use for animals). Thus, the extraction coefficient of sugar was reduced from 78% to 75.5%. In conclusion, based on the internal quality of autumn sowing sugar beet in Khozestan, the new formula of paid price with three various coefficients were introduced for the range of SC between 10 to 24 percents. In this formula, the paid price for each ton of sugar beet may calculate by the following equations: a) SC of 10 up to 15% \{base price * ((SC*0.155) _ 1.325)\}, b) between 15 up to 20% \{base price * ((SC*0.065) + 0.025)\} and c) SC equal or grater than 20% \{base price * 1.325\}. Applying the new non linear formula for the payment system of sugar beet in autumn sowing of Khozestan may improve the quality of sugar beet in the region. Consequently, both sugar factory and growers will be used from its benefits.