Oct 18, 2010
Mechanical Sugarcane Harvesting Increases Rural Unemployment
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
The Brazilian government is forcing sugarcane producers to gradually eliminate the practice of manually cutting sugarcane and replacing it with mechanical harvesting. The primary reason for the change is to eliminate the practice of burning off the dry leaves before the sugarcane is cut by hand. The burning produces a large amount of air pollution that causes respiratory distress for people living nearby. Much of the burning is done during the dry season, which makes the pollution even worse. Without cleansing rains, the smoke and pollutants can remain in the lower atmosphere for weeks or months at a time. The burning also releases significant amounts of greenhouse gasses which Brazil is trying to reduce.
Mechanical harvesting is also considered a much better agronomic practice. The mechanical harvesters return more organic material to the soil than hand harvesting and it aids in erosion control.
The forced switch to mechanical harvesting is going to occur gradually over the next few years. One of the reasons for the gradual switch is the capital cost of the mechanical harvesters and the fact that the two factories in Brazil that produce the mechanical harvesters cannot keep up with the demand. The waiting time for delivery of a harvester is many months and some manufactures have resorted to air lifting in parts in order to speed of the manufacturing process.
The introduction of mechanical harvesting for sugarcane harvesting improves efficiency and lowers costs, but it comes at the price of increased rural unemployment. Each mechanical harvester replaces about 120 men who would be in the field cutting the sugarcane by hand. Some of these men can be trained for other jobs connected with the plantation operations, but most are manual laborers and are forced to seek employment elsewhere.
The state of Mato Grosso is a small sugarcane producing state in Brazil, but in 2006 there were 17,000 workers employed by the sugarcane plantations in the state. By mid-2010, the number of workers involved in sugarcane production had fallen to 14,000 even though the sugarcane acreage actually increased in the state. The trend toward fewer workers in the sugarcane fields of the state is certain to continue. Currently in Mato Grosso, approximately 60% of the sugarcane is harvested mechanically.
There are some exceptions to the requirement for mechanical harvesting. If there are less than 150 hectares of sugarcane on any one property, burning would still be allowed because such a small acreage would not justify the cost of purchasing a mechanical harvester. Additionally, if the sugarcane is grown on very rough terrene where mechanical harvesting would not be possible; burning would also still be permissible.