Sugarcane

A genomic study of 390 accessions published in Cell in October 2025 concluded that noble cane, Saccharum officinarum, was domesticated from the wild species S. robustum about 8,000 years ago in New Guinea and nearby islands. A second centre of diversity formed in continental Asia about 3,000 years ago through crosses with S. spontaneum, and an unknown wild ancestor, probably from eastern Melanesia, contributed to most modern varieties.

Ligon records that Barbados planters of the 1640s took their first plants from Pernambuco in Brazil. Martinique's AOC specification says a variety known as "Canne Créole" was long the only one grown in the Americas, until "Canne d'Otahiti" or "Canne Bourbon" was introduced from Île Bourbon (Réunion) in 1785. Controlled cane breeding began at the end of the nineteenth century in research stations in Java and Barbados.

Today the Martinique AOC allows varieties of S. officinarum, S. spontaneum or their hybrids, tested locally for at least four years; genetically modified cane is banned. Cane for the AOC is cut between 1 January and 31 August and its juice must reach at least 14 °Brix.