Researchers at São Paulo State University in Brazil have determined that leaving sugar cane straw in the soil after harvesting reduces carbon emissions. They reached this conclusion after having compared two methods of harvesting sugar cane: mechanized harvesting and manual harvesting after the straw has been burned off the sugar cane plants. “We then conducted an experiment by dividing a plantation into three areas. After mechanized harvesting, one part was left covered with 50 percent of the straw, another with 100 percent, and the third with no straw,” project coordinator Newton la Scala Júnior told Tierramérica.

"The results revealed that the areas covered with straw emitted 400 kilograms less carbon, equivalent to 1,500 kilos of carbon dioxide,” he said.

Other uses of sugar cane straw are currently being studied, such as the generation of electrical power and the production of ethanol, but the best alternative, he believes, is leaving it in the ground.