Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply - Embrapa

Using agricultural zoning Embrapa has already mapped more than
600,000 hectares of farmable lands suitable for castor bean cultivation, which
could be an alternative crop for more than 100,000 rural families. Following
the recommended management practices can be as important as the
agronomic suitability of the land. This is particularly true when polycropping is
used to reduce risks, diversify the opportunities and obtain the maximum
number of food sources from a single area.
Despite reports of a large expansion of castor plantations – estimated
at 600,000 hectares by 2007 – the research on new castor bean varieties and
crop management technologies is still incipient, particularly the research on
harvesters25 . Although castor oil could be a vector for social inclusion in the
semi-arid zones, farmers should be prepared to face competition from new
areas with capital-intensive production.
The State of Maranhão is located in the transition region between the
semi-arid, the Cerrado and Amazonia. The state has great potential for
perennial crops, particularly babassu, which is native to the region and is
believed to cover more than 18-million hectares. Although babassu oil is
excellent there are some restrictions, among which the extraction costs: not
only the oil represents barely 4% to 5% of the fruit (whose protective shell is
very hard to crack open), but babassu coconuts are gathered in the traditional
way, that is, with very little formal organization.
Center-South
Soybean can supply the oil necessary to mix 5% biodiesel in fossil diesel.
There are still some economic restrictions to this crop, however, because of
the relative cost of the raw material for manufacturing biodiesel. The producers
are concerned with the competitiveness of biodiesel from soybean oil since
fiscal benefits would be rather small or even nonexistent in the Center-South.
Consequently, some companies26 are still hesitant or even afraid to think about
producing biodiesel for the domestic market. It should be emphasized,
however, that the government has reconsidered the tax issue with a view to
granting incentives to any biodiesel, regardless of region, type of company
and raw material used. Special treatment would only be accorded to family
agriculture the North and Northeast regions and the Semi-Arid.
25 As a rule, farmers still use corn harvesters with some adaptations.
26 For example, Ecomat in the State of Mato Grosso is a pioneer in the production of esters from
soybean oil for the purpose of mixing the alcohol to diesel. The company's installed capacity is
26,666 liters/day.
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