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| Author(s): |
Danny Alexander Rojas Moreno
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | Pirassununga. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Zootecnica e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZE/BT) |
| Defense date: | 2021-12-13 |
| Examining board members: |
Augusto Hauber Gameiro;
Feni Dalano Roosevelt Agostinho;
Rubens Nunes
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| Advisor: | Ives Cláudio da Silva Bueno; Augusto Hauber Gameiro |
| Abstract | |
Sheep farming has shown a prominent role in the Brazilian agricultural sector in the last two decades. However, population growth, increased demand for food products and the current economic system have forced sheep farmers to implement strategies and technologies that increase their productivity and efficiency, to remain active in the market. Despite this, in a world with finite resources and biophysical limits, continuous economic growth becomes unsustainable, reflecting the increase in productivity and consumption in the degradation of natural ecosystems. In this sense, the present study had two main objectives: i) to carry out a diagnosis of the economic and environmental performance of meat lamb production under different levels of technification in the State of São Paulo, Brazil; and ii) to propose a new allocation scheme for emergy flows based on the types of costs according to the precepts of neoclassical economic theory. Field visits were carried out with interviews with the owners of three representative farms of the state of São Paulo, with different levels of technification (Intensive, Feedlot and Semi-Intensive). On the other hand, theoretical concepts were used in the conceptual proposal, such as Cost Theory and Emergy Synthesis (ES). In the economic analysis, all cost items were considered, divided into variable costs (VCost); fixed operating costs (FCost); and remuneration of production factors (variable, fixed and land capital); the total cost (TCost) being the sum of all costs involved in production. In addition to costs, economic performance indicators were considered, such as: net profit (NProf) and the cost-benefit ratio (CBR). Regarding the assessment of environmental performance, the Emergy Synthesis was used, and the indexes: Transformity (Tr), Renewability (%Ren), Emergy Yield Ratio (EYR), Emergy Investment Ratio (EIR), Environmental Charge Ratio (ELR), Emergy Sustainability Index (ESI), and Emergy Exchange Index (EER) were calculated. Analyzes were performed using Microsoft Excel® software. It was observed that the Semi-intensive system was the only system that showed economic loss, with an NProf of US$ -7,922, exhibiting a CBR of -0.10. In contrast, Feedlot and Intensive positive values of US$ 9,845 and US$ 4,287, in this order, with CBRs of 0.06 and 0.05, respectively. In relation to environmental performance, Semi-intensive was the farm with the highest renewability (%Ren = 30.63%), followed by Feedlot (22.46%) and Intensive (19.81%). As for dependence on the economic system, Feedlot was the most dependent farm (EIR = 101.01), followed by Intensive and Semi-Intensive (11.94 and 5.75). On the other hand, Intensive and Feedlot were the systems that presented the highest environmental load (ELR, 4.05 and 3.45, respectively) and the lowest environmental sustainability (ESI, 1.08 and 1.01, respectively), when purchased with the Semi-intensive system values (ELR = 2.26 and ESI = 1.17). Based on these results, the study showed that the current economic system influences the environmental unsustainability of sheep production, since sheep farmers, in search of profitability, are being pressured to use non-renewable inputs to be more competitive. This behavior generates negative effects on the environment. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 20/10039-5 - Economic and energy evaluation of lamb production systems in the state of São Paulo |
| Grantee: | Danny Alexander Rojas Moreno |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Master |