Basic processes involved in sugar cane farming are land preparation,
planting, crop maintenance, harvesting, and transportation.
Once the sugar cane crop is about one year old, it is ready for harvesting
and processing into sugar. Only cane stalks are cut and collected
from the fields whereas the trash (leaves and tops) left is
either open burned or ploughed back into the soil. The process of
cane milling to extract sugar typically yields two important coproducts,
molasses and bagasse. Molasses has long been an ingredient
in livestock feedsbut currently is being promoted for
ethanol production as a solution to fossil-fuel dependence. As a
fuel, bagasse is used to generate steam and electricity for on-site
use and electricity for export to the grid. All the processes involved,
cane trash burning, cane trash incorporated into soil and bagasse
combustion, are considered creators of non-CO2 greenhouse gases,
e.g. CH4 and N2O. The sale of electricity to the grid, in contrast,
saves GHG emissions (mainly CO2) by avoiding use of fossil-based
grid electricity. The savings of emissions are thus credited to the
sugar cane system.