COSTS OF SOIL PREPARATION AND SUGARCANE PLANTING SYSTEMS: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INDEPENDENT SUPPLIERS AND SUGAR MILLS

Brazil is a reference in sugarcane production, especially the state of São Paulo, which is responsible for the largest volume of sugarcane production in the country. However, for sugarcane mills and suppliers to maintain this activity, there is a need to improve productivity per hectare and reduce production costs. Thus, the objective of this work is to analyze the costs of the combinations of soil preparation and planting types between sugarcane mills and suppliers. It is characterized as a quantitative study with a descriptive approach, carried out from primary data (survey of the average costs of research related to soil preparation and sugarcane planting) and secondary (cutting, loading, and transport cost and costs with cultural practices). The sample for this research comprised 31 mills and 42 sugarcane suppliers in the state of São Paulo, whose data were obtained through a survey provided data for the 2019/2020. The analysis was based on verifying the existence of a significant difference between the costs of soil preparation and planting evidenced by means of cumulative frequencies using Monte Carlo (MC) method. The results showed that, considering all possible combinations between tillage and planting systems, the lowest cost per ton was attained by suppliers with conventional tillage (CT) together with mechanized planting (MP) with variable rate for fertilizer application and also by using conventional tillage associated with planting pre-sprouted seedlings with fixed rate.