Sugarcane breeding Institute (SBI) , Coimbatore was established in the year 1932. It was originally called as Sugarcane Breeding Station in 1912. The Institute has one Regional Station and five Research Centres.

The Research centre at Kannur is one of the two World repositories (the other being at Miami, Florida state, USA) of sugarcane germplasm. Coimbatore bred vareities are popularly known as "Co canes".