The use of Sugar Cane

         If you were to ever drive around Africa, you would notice that there are quite a few sugar cane fields.  There are in South Africa at least.  That is because it is an important crop for food and energy production.  Worldwide, sugarcane accounts for about 80% of the sugar produced.  The remaining is sugar beet.  To my surprise, only about 5% of this comes from Africa.  Even though it is such a small percent, it has a huge impact on some communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.  

          You see, because of its capacity to accumulate high levels of sugar in its stems and its typical high-biomass yield, is why it is such an important crop.  Energy is in a high demand in these villages in Africa, so this also provides jobs to some of the people in the community.  

     A couple of facts about Sugarcane that are listed on this website are:

• Sugarcane is considered one of the best converters of solar energy into biomass and sugar, with a conversion efficiency of 2.21-2.29%, compared to maize at 0.2%.
• Africa contributes only 5% of the current global sugarcane production, and 83% of this is in Sub-Saharan Africa.  The Sub-Saharan African region, with its tropical and subtropical climate, is well-suited in many ways to expanding the production of sugarcane.
• Despite sugarcane's economic importance and significant efforts made by several international research groups, a reference genome is still unavailable today.

http://ipbo.vib-ugent.be/publications/fact-series/sugarcane-in-africa