Abstract
The idea of providing sugarcane juice and the sweets
produced from it is the first of its kind to provide more food
and health services to the millions of pilgrims in the Arbaeen of
Imam Hussein (peace be upon him) along the roads leading from
all governorates to the holy Karbala. These painful days are upon
us, laden with blood on the anniversary of the martyrdom of the
Master of the Youth of Paradise, Imam Hussein (peace be upon
him). Therefore, providing this service to the millions of pilgrims,
represented by preparing fresh, healthy juice that quenches their
thirst and maintains satiety and satiety for a period that is not
short, due to the calories and nutritional value it contains, is a
new service added to the services provided to visitors from all
concerned institutions, especially the Holy Shrine of Imam
Hussein (peace be upon him), represented by His Eminence the
Legal Trustee Sheikh Abdul Mahdi Al-Karbala’i, may God glorify
him, as the best available services are provided to visitors coming
from all countries of the world, especially our beloved Iraq. This
million-person visit, which is classified as the largest peaceful
human gathering in the world, as thousands of processions
provide service to visitors to strike Karbala and the provinces
leading to it with an example of diverse generosity and peaceful
coexistence. Sugarcane juice contains special compounds that
help reduce cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the body. Italso helps to lose body weight and maintain it, by enhancing the
feeling of satiety for a long time while providing few calories.
Sugarcane juice also helps to maintain stable blood sugar levels in
many diabetics due to the abundance of fiber in its components.
This type of juice also enhances the health of the digestive system
and improves kidney function as well as treating kidney stones. In
light of this, the positive objectives of establishing the sugarcane
cultivation project are to provide sugary juice with high nutritional
and medical value, and expanding its cultivation will lead, in
addition to consuming fresh juice during the Arbaeen visit, to the
possibility of benefiting from sugarcane waste in introducing it
into many other industries based on its waste without the need
for huge factories or high costs, which provides job opportunities
for the unemployed, such as the animal feed industry, the organic
fertilizer industry, the biochar industry, and feeding honeybee
colonies and many others. The modern methods used in the
project are to adopt modern irrigation systems to reduce water
consumption, as well as reclaiming more barren lands and making
them suitable for agriculture, which causes a wider scope for work
and employment in the region. Sugarcane has a high capacity to
accumulate sucrose in its stems, and grows well to reach heights
of 6 meters, thus contributing to improving the environment and
moderating the atmosphere during the Arbaeen visit and beyond.
It has been successfully cultivated in 12 Iraqi provinces, including
Baghdad, Babylon, Diwaniyah, Muthanna, Thi Qar, Karbala,
Wasit, Najaf and Anbar. This project, which was adopted by
the researcher within the projects of the technology incubator
affiliated with the Research and Development Department in the
Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, used the
method of planting by cuttings in addition to applying the seedlingtechnique, which achieved impressive results in the production of
sugar juice and sweets.