Sugarcane
Sugarcane is a giant tropical grass and the source of most of the world's sugar. It is a glutton for heat, sun and water, storing sugar in its stem over a long growing year — hence its home in the wet tropics and subtropics, led overwhelmingly by Brazil and India.
How it grows
Sugarcane is cut from tall, jointed canes.
What it’s worth to grow
Farm-gate value = the price farmers are paid per kilogram (FAOSTAT producer prices, median of 191 positive country-year observations spanning 2018–2024). It tracks how costly and labour-intensive a crop is to grow — almonds and vanilla command a premium; potatoes and cereals are cheap staples.
Where Earth's climate suits sugarcane
Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).
Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it
The climate where it grows
— mean monthly temperature ▍ monthly rainfall — averaged over the actual growing areas (the suitable cells) inside each country, so it reflects where the crop is really grown, not the national average. AgroClim 1991–2025 normals. The 🌧 badge is the last 3 months’ rainfall as a percentage of the 1991–2020 CHIRPS normal (through 2025-12) — the current drought/deluge signal.
Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop
Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±33° · soil pH 4.5–9.
Growing calendar & hazards
A long-season crop taking 10–18 months to mature; it is cut in the dry, cooler months when sugar content peaks, then ratoons — regrowing from the stubble for several more crops.
- Drought. Sugar yield tracks water; a dry year in the rain-fed cane belts cuts tonnage sharply.
- Frost. Frost kills the cane and inverts its sugar — the poleward limit.
- Cyclones. Wind flattens standing cane in the tropical storm belts.