ANALYSIS OF SUGARCANE AGROINDUSTRY EXPANSION IN THE CENTER-SOUTH REGION OF BRAZIL

Abstract

This article analyzes the modernization of agriculture and sugarcane agroindustry from the second half of the 20th century, showing the main technical innovations adopted, their impacts on the rise of the agricultural and industrial productivity, notably on the generation of employment in the rural areas and its relation to the environment. This process was different in the two main producing regions, North-Northeast and Center-South, and it was not capable of equalizing the social and technical development; thus the coexistence of both old and modern productive structures. Despite the economic advances yielded in the last years, the sugarcane agroindustry continues to be responsible for social and environmental problems in the producing regions, where labor law and civil public lawsuits against the activities of this sector proliferate.