Sugarcane - the dominant crop globally

Almost two billion tons of sugarcane are harvested globally each year, making it the most widely grown crop on Earth, according to visualcapitalist.com, which presents a ranking of global crop production in 2024, based on data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

While some top crops are staple foods, others support large industries. This is the case for biofuels, sweeteners and packaged foods.

• Corn, the second largest crop globally

Sugarcane is the dominant crop globally, with 1.94 billion tons per year, far exceeding all other crops, according to the cited source. Corn follows, with 1.22 billion tons, with the United States being the largest producer of the profile worldwide. Most corn, especially in the US, is harvested for use as animal feed or for the production of biofuels such as ethanol. The US has maintained large subsidies for corn for over half a century. The Corn Belt is a geographic region of the US dominated by the corn industry, centered around the Midwestern state of Iowa. Today, Iowa grows three times as much corn as all of Mexico, the country where corn was first harvested in pre-Columbian times.

In third and fourth place in the world's crop rankings are rice and wheat - two staple foods, with these crops reaching 820 and 798 million tonnes respectively.

Brazil is notably the leading producer of both sugarcane and soybeans, while Eurasian giants China, India and Russia are the world's leading wheat growers. Many of these crops have regional production centers; Soybeans, for example, tend to be produced in China, the US and South American countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.

The 5th to 10th places in the ranking are as follows: oil palm fruit (418.7 million tonnes), soybeans (397.6 million tonnes), potatoes (390.4 million tonnes), fresh cassava (341.9 million tonnes), sugar beets (293.6 million tonnes) and tomatoes (188.5 million tonnes).

• Brazil harvests more sugar cane than the next three largest producers

Brazil harvests more sugar cane each year than the next three largest producers combined, according to the cited source. Sugar cane is not only processed into table sugar, but also refined into biofuel, molasses and other sweeteners.

At the same time, in 2024, over 294 million tons of sugar beet were cultivated, representing approximately 20% of global sugar production. Sugar beet is cultivated specifically for the extraction of sugar.