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    Notes Sugar Cane in Brazil

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    Matthew Giscombe
    The sugar cane industry in Brazil has the following key characteristics: 1. It covers 8.5 million hectares of land, accounting for 2.5% of the country's arable land and producing over 600 million tons of sugar cane annually. 2. It employs modern sustainable farming practices like no-till production, crop rotation, and green fertilization to minimize soil erosion and maximize yields while preserving soil quality. 3. It provides direct employment to 1.18 million people and involves over 70,000 sugar cane growers.

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    Notes Sugar Cane in Brazil

    Uploaded by

    Matthew Giscombe
    60 views2 pages
    The sugar cane industry in Brazil has the following key characteristics: 1. It covers 8.5 million hectares of land, accounting for 2.5% of the country's arable land and producing over 600 million tons of sugar cane annually. 2. It employs modern sustainable farming practices like no-till production, crop rotation, and green fertilization to minimize soil erosion and maximize yields while preserving soil quality. 3. It provides direct employment to 1.18 million people and involves over 70,000 sugar cane growers.

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    The sugar cane industry in Brazil has the following key characteristics: 1. It covers 8.5 million hectares of land, accounting for 2.5% of the country's arable land and producing over 600 million tons of sugar cane annually. 2. It employs modern sustainable farming practices like no-till production, crop rotation, and green fertilization to minimize soil erosion and maximize yields while preserving soil quality. 3. It provides direct employment to 1.18 million people and involves over 70,000 sugar cane growers.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    60 views2 pages

    Notes Sugar Cane in Brazil

    Uploaded by

    Matthew Giscombe
    The sugar cane industry in Brazil has the following key characteristics: 1. It covers 8.5 million hectares of land, accounting for 2.5% of the country's arable land and producing over 600 million tons of sugar cane annually. 2. It employs modern sustainable farming practices like no-till production, crop rotation, and green fertilization to minimize soil erosion and maximize yields while preserving soil quality. 3. It provides direct employment to 1.18 million people and involves over 70,000 sugar cane growers.

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    Monday 30th January, 2017

    Geography- Human

    Sugar cane industry in Brazil

    Describe the characteristics of the sugar cane industry in Brazil.

    Characteristics of the sugar cane industry in Brazil

    1.Acreage:

    8.5 million of hectares of land is under sugar cane in Brazil. This amounts to 2.5% of arable land with a
    production of over 600 million tons of sugar cane per year

    2. Farming practices:

    The Brazilian sugarcane industry employs modern agronomic management practices to enhance
    productivity and protect the environment. Key features of Brazil’s sustainable approach to cultivation
    and processing include:

    Low Soil Erosion 


    Brazilian sugarcane fields have relatively low levels of soil loss, due in part to the semi-perennial nature
    of sugarcane. The same plant will grow back many times after it is cut and its cane juice is extracted. In
    fact, sugarcane is typically only replanted every six or seven years.

    The Brazilian industry also emphasizes farming techniques that preserve soil stability while yielding
    approximately 85 tons of sugarcane per hectare. Strategies include:

     No-till production systems
     Crop rotation with soybeans or peanuts
     Green fertilization by planting cover crops such as Crotalaria juncea  or using leftover sugarcane
    straw after mechanized harvesting as ground cover  
    Thanks to these responsible agricultural practices, soil erosion in sugarcane fields is minimal when
    compared to many other crops such as rice and soybeans (For more read the “Environmental
    sustainability of sugarcane ethanol in Brazil” study). In some regions of the country, sugarcane has been
    produced on the same soil for more than 200 years with continuous yield and soil carbon increases.
    Minimum Water Use
    Thanks to abundant and reliable rainfall, sugarcane is usually not irrigated in South-Central Brazil,
    where most of the country’s crop is grown. Water accounts for more than two-thirds of sugarcane’s
    weight, so a significant amount of water actually comes to the mill inside the cane itself.
    Brazilian mills emphasize efficiency and have reduced the water used during industrial processing by
    more than 70% (to 1.4 m³ per ton) during the past two decades. New technologies will soon allow for a
    more efficient use of the water contained in the cane, and water withdrawal could be reduced to 0.5
    m3/ton. Today, nearly 95% of the water consumed by a typical mill is later treated and re-used in the
    industrial process, with the objective to eliminate water discharge.

    3. Labour:

    The industry employs 1.18 million people in terms of direct employment. There are over 70,000 sugar
    cane growers.

    4. Technology ( use of materials, tools, techniques, source of power)

    5. Markets

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