Actions and opinions of Brazilian farmers who shift to sugarcane⿿an interview-based assessment with discussion of implications for land-use change

Abstract

Sugarcane ethanol systems can deliver large greenhouse gas emissions savings if emissions associated with land-use change are kept low. This qualitative study documents and analyzes actions and opinions among Brazilian farmers who shift to sugarcane production. Semi-structured interviews were held with 28 actors associated with sugarcane production in three different regions: one traditional sugarcane region and two regions where sugarcane is currently expanding. Most farmers considered sugarcane a land diversification option with relatively low economic risk, although higher risk than their previous land use. Beef production was considered a low-risk option, but less profitable than sugarcane. In conjunction with converting part of their land to sugarcane, most farmers maintained and further intensified their previous agricultural activity, often beef production. Several farmers invested in expanded production in other regions with relatively low land prices. Very few farmers in the expansion regions shifted all their land from the former, less profitable, use to sugarcane. Very few farmers in this study had deforested any land in connection with changes made when shifting to sugarcane. The respondents understand "environmental friendliness" as compliance with the relevant legislation, especially the Brazilian Forest Act, which is also a requirement for delivering sugarcane to the mills. Indirect land-use change is not a concern for the interviewed farmers, and conversion of forests and other native vegetation into sugarcane plantations is uncontroversial if legal. We derive hypotheses regarding farmers' actions and opinions from our results. These hypotheses aim to contribute to better understanding of what takes place in conjunction with expansion of sugarcane and can, when tested further, be of use in developing, e.g., policies for iLUC-free biofuel production.

Cluster Analysis Referring to Rural Enterprises of Sugarcane Local Productive Arrangement (LPA) in Quirinópolis, Brazil

“…Transport logistics is fundamental to the economic sustainability of the sugarcane business (Spera et al, 2017), since the farther distances imply losses in product quality. The most distant rural establishments in this study are 55 km, confirming other correlated studies on this factor, which demonstrate that, for the economic sustainability of the sugarcane activity, it must have a distance of up to ± 50 km to avoid negatively impact on the economic outcome (Roviero, 2014;Egeskog et al, 2016;Spera et al, 2017).…”

Transição Florestal no estado de São Paulo, Brasil: fatores associados ao desmatamento e recuperação das matas nativas

“…On the other hand, sugarcane mills and fruit processing industries demand machinery, dense paved road network, services, and labor, and benefit from proximity to research centers and farms , Sparovek et al 2007. As a result, the infrastructure development inflates land prices and sugarcane and orange farms become predominant, encouraging the displacement of less profitable activities, mainly extensive cattle ranching, to regions where lands are cheaper (e.g., leakage) (Egeskog et al 2016). A similar pattern to what we found in São Paulo municipalities was observed at the sub-national scale in Brazil.…”

Leakage and boosting effects in environmental governance: a framework for analysis

“…Market-mediated leakage can result from changes in either input prices or output prices, sometimes referred to as 'land-market leakage' or 'commodity-market leakage' . An example of the former is when land prices go up, for instance due to biofuel policies increasing land demand or conservation policies restricting land supply, thereby capitalizing farmers and facilitating expansion in forest frontier areas (Richards 2015, Egeskog et al 2016, Richards and Arima 2018. An example of the latter is the indirect land-use change effects of biofuel policies; increased demand for agricultural land for biofuel production in one region leads to changes in global crop prices, resulting in agricultural expansion (and associated carbon emissions) in other parts of the world, mediated through global agricultural markets (Hertel et al 2010).…”