Agronegócio do dendê: evolução no Estado do Pará, no Brasil e no Peru

Abstract

Oil palm monoculture is increasing in the world and in the entire Amazonian watershed. It is therefore necessary to have a scientific insight on the applied public policies of this sector, it is also important to assess the influence of technological changes in order to enhance positive impacts and to neutralize or mitigate negative impacts. It was used an evolutionary approach to determine the influence of; public policy of tax exemptions and credits (which allowed a strong initial capitalization of companies in the sector), the creation or adaptation of state organizations (to promote the development of plantations), as well as the technological development of breeding, pest management (to increase the production), harvest of fresh fruit branches (to reduce cost and increase production) and the treatment process of extraction palm oil waste (to allow the environmental license) in the development of oil palm agribusiness in the Brazilian state of Para and Peru. A survey was conducted to get some information from the current local farmers and it was also done a historical study on the public policy of tax exemptions, credits and the creation of state institutions or the changes that they experienced, such as the technological changes in this agribusiness. The similar issues found in Para and Peru were: (i) the states with public funds, are those who created this monoculture, (ii) they created organizations/institutions and legal regulations to promote its development; and (iii) at the beginning, tax releases were established to favor only large companies but in recent years these policies allowed direct access to credits to microproducers, it has increased the social base defense of this crop against to opponent ecologist groups. It was found a "predisposition" of the authorities to promote this monoculture and the acceptance of the local farmers due to the permanent "income." It suggested that better public policy in addition to better decisions of the public and private enterprises and the use of superior technology brought together higher production levels of palm oil fresh fruit in Para and Peru, and the increase of planting areas in the last years. Moreover the palm oil waste treatment in both countries is considered as an extra cost and it is only done by big enterprises. It was concluded that the state play the role of player-mediator, which main role was the promotion and development of this monoculture, likewise, the technological development facilitated to the increase of production levels, it supports even more to the promotion of palm oil monoculture in both states.