Production and use of fuel ethanol in Brazil - BAFF

B3. Production: conservation of soils
and water resources, utilization of
agrochemicals, agricultural practices, and
industrial waste
B3.1.
What is the impact of sugar-cane crops and
the processing of sugar-cane into ethanol on the
availability of water in Brazil?
Even though Brazil has the world’s largest amount of available water, with 14 percent
of the surface waters, and the equivalent to the annual runoff in underground
aquifers, the use of irrigation in agriculture (all crops) is very low (~3.3 million ha,
against 227 million ha in the world). Sugar-cane crops are practically not irrigated
in Brazil, except for some small areas (supplementary irrigation), and this is an
enormous advantage over other regions of the world. As a result, environmental
problems with water quality arising out of irrigation (dragging of nutrients and
agrochemicals, erosion) and industrial use occur considerably less frequently than
they do in other parts of the world. In this regard, Embrapa rates sugar-cane as
Level 1 (no impact on water quality).
In the ethanol and sugar industry, the water collection and release levels have been
substantially decreased over the past few years, from around 5 m 3 /ton of sugar-cane
worth of collected water (in 1990 and 1997) to 1.83 m 3 /ton of sugar-cane in 2004
(data from São Paulo). The efficiency rate of effluent treatment was in excess of 98
percent.
Permanent Protection Areas consisting of riverside woods represent 8.1 percent
of São Paulo’s sugar-cane crop area, 3.4 percent of which having natural woods,
and 0.8 percent having been reforested. The implementation of riverside woods
restoration programs, combined with the protection of springs and water courses,
can help to foster a plant biodiversity restoration in the long term.
B. Sugar-cane and ethanol production: environmental aspects
49