Canaviculture in Maranhão

spatialization, socio-economic and environmental characteristics of producing municipalities

Abstract

This study aims to examine the dynamics of sugarcane production in Maranhão and characterize the producing municipalities based on economic, social and environmental dimensions. The 80 producing municipalities in this state were investigated using secondary databases such as the Demographic and Agricultural Census, Gross Domestic Product and the Municipal Agricultural Survey (PAM) of the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). Data were treated by exploratory factor analysis and cluster analysis. The results showed that even with production growth in recent decades, Maranhão is still far from being equal to other producers in the Northeast Region. In characterizing the municipalities, factors were extracted from their characteristics, namely: production and income; land use; productive resources; and environmental conservation. The ones that most influenced the formation of clusters were production and income; and environmental conservation. It was found that most municipalities have low income and agricultural production. Sugarcane cultivation is significant in only a few of the municipalities studied, especially in those where there are ethanol production plants. However, it is concluded that there is still a low conservation of environmental resources in most municipalities surveyed.