Sugar beet is a biennial plant belonging to the family Quenopodiaceae. Its sci­entific name is Beta vulgaris L. It is believed that the beet originated in Italy. Beet flowers are not very appealing and are hermaphroditic. The roots are pivot­ing (they are sunk as a trunk prolongation), almost totally buried, with a yellow- greenish rough peel. The root is the organ where most sugar is accumulated in the plant. The seeds are adhered to the calyx. The different beet varieties are used for human food (table or red beet), animal feed (fodder beet), and sugar production (sugar beet). The latter variety (B. vulgaris var. altissima) is the most employed in temperate zones, especially in Europe and North America. To be cultivated, sugar beet requires a temperate, sunny, moist climate and deep soils with neutral pH, high water retention, and good aeration. Clay, sandy, calcareous, and dry soils are not adequate for this crop (Infoagro, 2002).

Sugar beet is an important crop in Europe, North America, and Asia. France is the major producer of sugar beet followed by Germany and the United States (FAO, 2006) as shown in Table 3.4. France had a cropped area with sugar beet of about 379,000 hain 2005, while Russia had about 780,000 ha cropped with sugar beet. These data give an idea on the yield differences between these two countries.