Sugarcane

Sugarcane is the world's biggest crop by weight, at about 1.9 billion tonnes a year, led by Brazil and India. Maize is the biggest grain crop but weighs in lower.

Annual figures shift with harvests.

Context

Sugarcane is a tall tropical grass grown for the sugar stored in its stalks. The harvested stalks are heavy and watery, which is why it tops lists measured by weight. Counted by tonnes of harvested product, it is ahead of maize, rice and wheat, though maize is the largest cereal at roughly 1.2 billion tonnes a year.

Output figures differ by source and by year. An OECD-based tally put world production at about 1.77 billion tonnes for 2021, while other years and data sets come out closer to 1.9 billion. Brazil is the largest producer and India usually ranks second, and the two together account for well over half of the world total.

Weight is only one way to rank crops. By calories or by value, cereals and other crops look more important, and sugarcane's weight includes a lot of water and fibre. Besides sugar, the crop is used to make ethanol fuel, especially in Brazil.

Because harvests change with weather, prices and planted area, year-to-year figures move by several percent. Quote the number as an approximation and check the latest FAO release for the newest total.