Ripening in sugarcane refers to an increase in sugar content on a fresh weight basis before commercial harvest. In Ethiopian Sugar Industry ripening of cane especially at the early and late periods of crushing shows a decline against the mid periods of crushing. Thus, an effort was made to show the trend of ripening and associated losses by considering the problem of ripening at Tendaho, Metahara and Wonji-Shoa Sugar Estates. To have concrete information, cane plantation harvest result, meteorological and experimental data were used. Furthermore, reviews about ripening, research and developments of chemical ripeners, conditions and considerations for good response, environmental and economic issues related to ripeners were made. From the trend analysis and experimental data it is concluded that the conventional ripening method by withholding water has draw back in exploiting the maximum attainable recovery potential at Metahara, Wonji-Shoa and Tendaho Sugar Factories. At Wonji-Shoa, the loss in sucrose percent cane from the peak value attained in the crushing months ranged from 0.02 to 0.95 %. Similarly, at Metahara, the deviation in sucrose percent cane from the peak in the crushing moths ranged from 0.32 to 1.10 %. In general, maximum loss in sucrose percent cane was observed in the early and late periods of crushing. Temperature and residual moisture plays an important role in the ripening of cane and the challenge also seems to occur at Finchaa and newly emerging sugar factories located in the lowlands of the country
Keywords: Rainfall, Temperature, chemical ripeners, dry-off period, ripening, sucrose, sucrose loss.
