Avaliação da eficiência das principais regiões produtoras de cana-de-açúcar por meio da análise envoltória de dados (DEA)

Abstract

Given the importance of agribusiness to the national economy and the growth of production in the sugar-energy industry, the evaluation of technical efficiency and scale of the production regions can improve the allocation of productive resources. The objective of this study was to verify the technical and scale efficiency of the regions Northeast, traditional Mid-South and expansion Mid-South, according to the production costs of cane sugar in 2007/2008 to 2011/2012 harvests in Brazil. The research was characterized as descriptive, using the documentary technical procedure and quantitative approach. The statistical tests Tukey and Kruskal-Wallis were used to identify which costs had statistically significant variations between regions, besides Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), oriented to inputs to quantify the efficiency of the regions and focus the costs that can be reduced. The output used in DEA model is the amount of cane produced in each region, and inputs were the costs with mechanization, workmanship, supplies, leasing, administrative costs, land and capital remuneration. The results show that the highest average cost is the mechanization in traditional Mid-South and expansion Mid-South, while in the Northeast it relates to workmanship. The traditional Center-South region is the most technically efficient, and four of the five harvests obtained maximum efficiency (efficiency score equals one). The issue of technical and scale efficiency was presented only in Northeast during the 2011/2012 season. Other harvests in Northeast and the crops of traditional South-Central region have shown problems only with scale. On average, scale efficiency was 65%, and pure efficiency, 99%, demonstrating that although the costs may decrease 1%, the biggest problem of the regions is the amount that will be produced, because it does not operate in optimal scale of production.