Cultivated in Brazil for almost five centuries, sugarcane has gone through very distinct and remarkable cycles, from plantation owners to sugar mill owners, from family businesses to publicly traded conglomerates and, among other transformations, the government's regulation of the free market. . In the last 48 years, since the beginning of Proálcool, there have been large expansions in area and the advance to other regions of Brazil besides the Southeast and Northeast.

With agricultural management it was also no different, given that the expansion required significant changes, which were materialized through the development of research, new technologies and equipment and machines, which brought the necessary efficiency to the new reality. During this period, several plants were also structured to receive experimental fields for new clones and varieties, and other studies with the aim of improving their agricultural management.

New varieties have always meant a big boost in agricultural management and productivity, followed by improvements in the use of inputs. However, those who have already reached an average equal to or greater than 100 tons of sugarcane per hectare know how much work needs to be done to eliminate productivity “thieves”. All the potential that the use of appropriate varieties and inputs represents can easily disappear if there is a lack of quality in agricultural operations and rigor in time management and the ideal time to carry out activities.

Those who started their career in the mills or how sugarcane producers in the Proálcool era experienced the great challenge of organizing crops, recording and controlling agronomic information, in addition to the search for agricultural management solutions in a scenario of strong expansion, especially in sandy soils with low fertility.



It was undoubtedly a cycle of generating a lot of knowledge and training new professionals. That time left a very important legacy to face a new reality that was to come: the elimination of sugarcane straw burning and mechanized harvesting and planting. This is the new cycle we live in today, an era of endless technology: GPS, autopilot, satellite images, management programs, operations monitoring equipment, drones, autonomous machines, among many others, are emerging at an accelerated rate.

It is in this scenario of profuse technological resources that agricultural management needs to be inserted to reach the long-awaited three-digit productivity, fundamental to keep costs at a sustainable level. Agricultural practices need to be constantly revised to meet market requirements and society's wishes. Far beyond labor and socio-environmental issues, certifications to position products in the best markets are constantly being improved and requirements, such as traceability, normally permeate production chains. In an environment where there is no retreat, we will now address some technical concepts of agricultural management.

For sugarcane nutrition, from soil preparation to ratoon treatments, Liebig 's law (1850) remains valid, whereby productivity is limited by the element whose concentration is lower than the minimum required by the crop. However, the supply of inputs and technologies has multiplied so much in recent years that, without a fine-tuning, there will be a risk of wasting time and resources.

In addition to working with the results of soil analyzes and calculating the replacement of nutrients extracted by the crop, it is imperative to adopt agricultural practices that contribute to preserving the soil as a favorable environment for sugarcane rooting and the increase of microbial life. It is also essential to add nutrients via sources of organic matter, crop rotation and soil protection with some type of vegetation cover.

Crop rotation, in addition to the possibility of additional revenue, means a great benefit from an agronomic point of view, whether in the nutritional aspect, in pest and weed control, and also in soil conservation thanks to the vegetation cover in the lowest period. rainy. The presence of straw, which accumulates and also decomposes each year, brings the benefits of water retention in the soil and nutrient cycling.

In some regions, it can delay the sprouting of stumps, but there is a solution to remove it between the rows, leaving the cane rows free. It also serves as a shelter for some important pests, such as the leafhopper and the sugarcane borer, but also for natural enemies. Other pests, such as sphenophorus, metamasius and migdolus , have somehow also benefited from this new environment. As for nematodes, control based on sampling, identification of species and population has long been established.

For all these pests mentioned, there are innovative solutions, even if some still require a gain in control efficiency, as in the case of sphenophorus and others, such as biological defensives, are already fully adapted to the new reality. Biological control of the sugarcane borer, diatraea saccharallis, is the most sedimented. For more than 50 years, natural enemies have been created in the laboratory and released in the field with the aim of increasing the existing natural biological control. The use of drones, relatively recent, for the release of Cotesia and Trichograma , provided a notable gain in efficiency and quality.

The pests that live in the soil also require an integrated control management that includes techniques that reduce their population, such as the use of the ratoon eradicator implement in the dry period and crop rotation. There are also biological defensives for some of them, such as beauveria and metarhizium , which will infest the forms of pests and colonize, remaining alive in the following years. Biological nematicides are already widely used in planting and treatments of stumps.

Weed control also had to adapt after straw burning was eliminated. Many species that were rarely found, especially those with broad leaves, are now very widespread and aggressive, as is the case of mucuna , which, in addition to fierce competition with sugarcane, brings serious difficulties to mechanized harvesting.

For most grasses, control solutions are satisfactory, which is not the case with silk grass, which is difficult to eradicate. In any case, integrated management continues to apply, which provides for the use of all prevention practices to prevent the spread of weeds and the disinfestation of the areas throughout the cycle, to arrive at the planting of sugarcane or rotational crops with the areas weed free.

There are many factors that interfere with agricultural management, some imponderable, such as the climate and others that easily get out of control. The conclusion is that, regardless of the weather condition, to continue producing satisfactorily throughout the cuts, the sugarcane crop needs to have a sufficient stem population, very few failures, plants with good rooting and high leaf health for as long as possible during the cycle; conditions that not even the best inputs can guarantee if there is not good quality management, preceded by a constant work of training employees.