ABSTRACT
Sugarcane is probably the crop produced in the greatest quantities globally. More than 1,000 million tons of sugarcane are harvested each year. This exceeds the level of production of the major grain food crops, wheat, rice and maize, each of which has production of around 600 million tons per annum. Sugarcane is the source of most of the sugar produced in the world greatly exceeding sugar beet as a source of sugar (Cordeiro et al. 2007).
