Relationship between agrarian contracts and renewable energy production in sugarcane agroindustry

Abstract

Many agroindustries that process sugarcane raw to produce sugar and ethanol, and for energy cogeneration have difficulties to obtain all the necessary raw material. The agrarian contract practice can allow access to land in order to increase the production of sugarcane, without immobilizing resources in terms of the purchase of land, reducing the idle capacity of industrial plant, and increasing the cogeneration of energy by burning bagasse and sugarcane straw. It appears that the form of production of sugarcane (i.e., through land leasing, sharecropping, independent producers, etc.) can significantly affect the total costs of the industrial process. This work looks to find an empirical relation between the type of sugarcane producers and the energy produced by the mill based on data of the Agricultural Census of Brazil and monitoring data of power plant operation parameters of a typical mill in Brazil. It was found that the sugarcane raw coming from lands worked for tenants and sharecroppers increased his participation 112% and 469% respectively in the energy generation in the period 2006 to 2017.