Costs and benefits of soybean production in the "Cerrado" of Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Scolari, Dante D.G.
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://seer.sct.embrapa.br/index.php/pab/article/view/17080
• topic: economic analysis; benefits; Brazil; benefícios; análise econômica; Brasil

Costs and benefits of producing soybean in the "cerrado" soil of central Brazil were evaluated. Total investment costs, including mechanical clearing and using high fertilizer levels, were Cr $ 15,062.00 (September of 1979)/ha. Taking in account the agricultural economic policies for this region, with interest rate of 4%, this means an annual investment cost of Cr $ 1,612.00/ha.  Annual production costs reached Cr $ 10,399.00/ha, so, total production costs were Cr $ 11,951.00/ha. Benefits were measured in terms of net profit and benefit cost ratio (B/C), which was calculated by dividing present worth of gross benefits by present worth of gross costs. At market prices, with soybean yields of 2.1 metric t/ha net profits were Cr $ 5,059.00, and the B/C ratio was 1.42; with yields of 2.5 metric tons, net profits increased to Cr $ 8,299.00 and B/C to 1.69. At garanteed federal minimum prices, and yields of 2.5 metric tons net profit decreased to Cr $ 1,174.00, and B/C ratio to 1.10; with yields of 2.1 metric t/ha, profits were negative and B/C ratio was 0,92. Therefore, soybean production in the "cerrado" soils of central Brazil may be highly profitable, yielding high benefit costs ratios, even if we consider a high interest rate on the initial investments.