<P> Sugarcane, or sugar cane, are several species of tall perennial true grasses of the genus Saccharum, tribe Andropogoneae, native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South and Southeast Asia, Polynesia and Melanesia, and used for sugar production . It has stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in the sugar sucrose, which accumulates in the stalk internodes . The plant is two to six metres (six to twenty feet) tall . All sugar cane species interbreed and the major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids . Sugarcane belongs to the grass family Poaceae, an economically important seed plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum, and many forage crops . </P> <P> Sucrose, extracted and purified in specialized mill factories, is used as raw material in the food industry or is fermented to produce ethanol . Ethanol is produced on a large scale by the Brazilian sugarcane industry . Sugarcane is the world's largest crop by production quantity, with 1.9 billion tonnes produced in 2016, and Brazil accounting for 41% of the world total . In 2012, The Food and Agriculture Organization estimated it was cultivated on about 26 million hectares (64 million acres), in more than 90 countries . </P> <P> The global demand for sugar is the primary driver of sugarcane agriculture . Cane accounts for 80% of sugar produced; most of the rest is made from sugar beets . Sugarcane predominantly grows in the tropical and subtropical regions (sugar beets grow in colder temperate regions). Other than sugar, products derived from sugarcane include falernum, molasses, rum, cachaça (a traditional spirit from Brazil), bagasse, and ethanol . In some regions, people use sugarcane reeds to make pens, mats, screens, and thatch . The young, unexpanded inflorescence of Saccharum edule (duruka or tebu telor) is eaten raw, steamed, or toasted, and prepared in various ways in Southeast Asia, including Fiji and certain island communities of Indonesia . </P> <P> The Persians, followed by the Greeks, encountered the famous "reeds that produce honey without bees" in India between the 6th and 4th centuries BC . They adopted and then spread sugarcane agriculture . Merchants began to trade in sugar from India, which was considered a luxury and an expensive spice . In the 18th century AD, sugarcane plantations began in Caribbean, South American, Indian Ocean and Pacific island nations and the need for laborers became a major driver of large human migrations, including slave labor and indentured servants . </P>

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