Sugarcane burning: a systematic review of emissions, monitoring approaches, and environmental and health impacts

The sugarcane industry is a major economic driver in South Africa supporting regional employment. However, traditional pre-harvest sugarcane burning releases hazardous air pollutants including fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ), black carbon carbon monoxide (CO), and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), as well as greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), and nitrous oxide (N 2 O). This systematic review evaluates global research on sugarcane burning emissions, Earth observation tools, atmospheric transport models, and associated human health risks. Following PRISMA 2020 guidelines, a multi-database search across Scopus and Web of Science yielded 177 primary empirical studies. The synthesis reveals that research capacity is heavily concentrated in the United States (n = 48) and Brazil (n = 29), whereas South Africa (n = 5) remains understudied. Methodological analysis shows that unadjusted global fire inventories underestimate sugarcane emissions due to coarse spatial resolution and uncalibrated fuel loads. Furthermore, clinical and occupational studies document significant harvester health risks, including acute kidney injury (AKI) driven by heat strain and toxic silica ash exposure. This paper highlights the critical need to integrate high-resolution multi-sensor satellite observations, localised crop-specific emission factors, and rural health surveillance to address air quality monitoring gaps in data-scarce regions.