Sugarcane are several species of tall true perennial herbs of the genus Saccharum, tribe Andropogoneae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia and Melanesia, and used for the production of sugar. It has thick, tight, fibrous stems, which are rich in the sugar sucrose, which accumulates in the stem internodes. The plant is between two and six meters high. All species of sugarcane are crossed and the main commercial cultivars are complex hybrids. Sugarcane belongs to the Poaceae family of grasses, an economically important family of seed plants that includes corn, wheat, rice and sorghum, and many forage crops.
Sucrose, extracted and purified in specialized factories, is used as a raw material in the food industry or is fermented to produce ethanol. Ethanol is produced on a large scale by the Brazilian sugar cane industry. Sugarcane is the largest crop in the world by quantity of production.
Global demand for sugar is the main driver of sugarcane agriculture. Cane represents 80% of the sugar produced; Most of the rest is made from sugar beets. Sugarcane grows predominantly in tropical and subtropical regions (sugar beet grows in colder temperate regions). In addition to sugar, the products derived from sugarcane are falernum, molasses, rum, cachaça, bagasse and ethanol. In some regions, people use reed canes to make feathers, mats, partitions, and straw. The young, unexpanded inflorescence of tebutelor is eaten raw, steamed, or roasted, and prepared in various ways in certain Indonesian island communities.
Traders began trading in sugar from India, which was considered a luxury and an expensive spice. In the eighteenth century began the plantations of sugar island nations of the Caribbean, American South, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific and the need for workers became a major driver of large human migrations, including hand labor slave.
