Sugarcane is a common crop across the global south, that is grown heavily for the benefit of the Global North.
That they can turn the byproduct of a cash crop grown for neo-imperialism into something useful for the locals is no bad thing (unless the landowners/sugarcane processors forbid/constrain the use of the leftovers).
You're not wrong.
Source: grew up near pine Monoculture forestry land. Is grim, dead pines underfoot and little light. Few to no flowers. Sterile(ised) feeling "forests".