RESUMO
This study aims to identify explanatory factors to increase the agricultural performance of Brazilian and Australian sugarcane mills. The relevance of Brazil and Australia for the sugar industry motivated the development this study based on the most important factors in both countries responsible for increasing the efficiency in sugarcane production. Thus, this study is designed to assess the hypothesis that there are a few explanatory variables that are deeply responsible for the agricultural efficiency in the sugar-energy sector. As a specific objective, it proposes a DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) model that seeks to optimize the production of Total Recoverable Sugar (TRS) by planted area, and simultaneously, minimizes mineral and vegetable impurities. The sample consists of 82 observations from 32 sugarcane mills. An agricultural efficiency study was performed using the two-stage DEA, in which the evaluated mills according to the level of efficiency in the proposed model. Then, a Multiple Linear Regression Analysis was performed to identify the variables with the greatest influence on the performance of the mills in terms of efficiency. The results revealed six relevant variables for increasing the agricultural performance in the production of sugarcane: rainfall (mm weekly), chopped cane delivery (%), delivery time (h), borer (%), air humidity (%), and rods in raw wine (× 105/mL). Finally, semi-structured interviews with Brazilian and Australian experts in the sugar-energy sector allowed the identification of five other relevant complementary factors that were unavailable in the database: genetic variety, agricultural cultivation activities, edaphoclimatic factors, renewal of sugarcane fields and irrigation system. The results of this study were grouped into the dimensions of environment, yield, and impurities, providing quantification and better understanding of the identified explanatory factors and the agricultural performance in terms of production efficiency, offering fundamental information that enables managers to make decisions and prioritize the aspects that contribute more significantly to the increase in agricultural productivity of the planted area.
RESUMO
Inadequate solid waste management leads to contamination of the soil and surface and underground water; the emergence of antibiotic-resistant superbacteria due to the inadequate disposal of medicines in toilets or in household rubbish; and the emission of persistent organic pollutants, such as flame retardants, present in some electrical/electronic equipment. In Brazil, the principles that underpin the National Solid Waste Policy (PNRS) are consistent with those used by developed countries, namely, the polluter-payer and protector-receiver; cooperation among the different spheres of government, the business sector, and other societal segments; and the shared product life-cycle responsibility (Brasil, 2010a; Novi et al., 2013; Santos et al., 2019). In the latter, selective collection and reverse logistics systems are the primary instruments (Zhang et al., 2011). Thus, the general objective of this work is to compare the technical and economic feasibility of four different sectorial agreements for reverse logistics implemented in Brazil. The specific objective is to describe the possible conflicts of interest of the multistakeholders. The sources of evidence used in this multi-case study were interviews, observations, and documentary research in the period from 2016 to 2018. The first result demonstrated that the economic viability of reverse logistics systems are obtained when the wastes have a commercial value after consumption (packaging and consumer electronics) or when industries organize to charge a fee that covers the costs of recycling and transport (lamps and medicines). The second result shows that there are many stakeholders involved in this process: manufacturers and importers, consumers, private waste and recycling companies, and government represented by municipalities, the Ministry of the Environment (MMA), and state environmental agencies (OEMAs). Each one has different interests and responsibilities: government has to preserve the environment and comply with international agreements on climate change, thus creating laws that ultimately burden companies and cities; profit-maximizing companies evaluate these rules as additional costs in their operations, whereas cities, in which operations are conducted, have low financial and managerial capacity. The stakeholder map reveals that there are overlapping roles among agents, with some being the same for all chains, and the constructed power and level of interest matrix indicates the importance of the process to be conducted by the state to align economic and social-environmental interests.