Macaúba: opportunities and challenges

Macaúba has been indicated as a promising oilseed species for the production of vegetable oil for the manufacture of biodiesel, mainly due to the high volume of oil per hectare (a productivity of two to five thousand kilos is expected, depending on the number of plants per hectare). hectare and plant productivity), the rusticity of the plant, and the support that co-products can provide for its profitability: charcoal, originating from the seed shell (endocarp); almond oil, intended for the cosmetics industry; and the two feeds - the first, produced from the pulp, aimed at feeding cattle, and the second, from the almond, used to feed poultry due to its high protein value, both appreciated by the existing group of buyers.

Add to that the fact that macaúba does not have a significant presence as a human food option, therefore not representing another participant in the energy versus food competition. These are elements that could provide the production of a low-cost vegetable oil, which would make it possible to obtain an adequate scale of biodiesel, thus contributing to the construction of the Brazilian matrix of renewable fuels. Furthermore, macaúba occurs in practically all Brazilian biomes.

In the region surrounding Belo Horizonte (MG), macaúba was already extracted on a large scale throughout the 1996th century to supply the Santa Luzia S/A soap factory, located in the municipality of Santa Luzia, Minas Gerais, mainly focused on soap production. . With the closure of the factory in 80, the macaúba coconut collection activity began to decline, due to the entry into the market of lower-cost detergents sold in large supermarket chains. With oil prices exceeding the line of XNUMX dollars per barrel, and the expectation of a decline in production and stocks, the need for high productivity raw materials for biodiesel production became evident and macaúba stands out as a type of high potential.

Currently, the macaúba production chain is in the process of restructuring. In the state of Minas Gerais, the agricultural production link of raw materials has been mainly supported by two segments: the extraction of natural masses and the implementation of commercial plantations of the species. Extractivism has the following strengths: the availability of fruits for immediate harvesting, since native macaubas are already in production; the possibility of intercropping macaúba with other crops such as corn, beans, sugarcane, castor beans, vegetables and pastures for livestock; and the generation of income provided to family farmers and extractivists who use coconut collection as a complementary productive activity.

However, natural masses present high variability in the quality of the raw material, in addition to their production varying over the years, resulting in seasonality in their supply. Another difficulty with extractivism is the low yield of the coconut collection activity and the lack of a technically defined sustainable management plan for the natural masses - which could favor the qualification of the workforce of the population involved in the collection, which could become income factor and social inclusion.

Commercial plantations of the species are still in the implementation phase and are expected to enter production within five to seven years. A company is investing in its domestication and hopes to plant around 3.750 hectares of macaúba in the 2009/2010 harvest year. The main advantages of commercial plantations are: the greater number of individuals per hectare and the standardization of crop lines, which will enable a high yield from silvicultural operations and coconut harvesting; the preliminary selection of genetic material for the formation of seedlings - although there are still no cultivars with proven agricultural superiority, it is expected that the plantations will present less variability in fruit quality than natural massifs.

The main difficulty faced by producers who intend to work with macaúba is the lack of financing lines compatible with the characteristics of the culture, the biggest costs of which are in the implementation of the cultivation and the revenues will only start to come in from the fifth or seventh year, when the planting will go into production. The other difficulties are related to the uncertainties regarding the expected production of the plantations, the lack of a technological package developed for macaúba, and the non-inclusion of the crop in the agro-climatic zoning, which makes it difficult to obtain agricultural insurance and, consequently, the agricultural financing.

In order for the macaúba production chain to establish itself and take advantage of the full potential it provides, technologies must be developed for its commercial use as well as for the sustained management of natural masses, mainly to reduce the uncertainties related to its production, which it will reduce the economic risk of crops and the environmental risk of exploiting natural masses, enabling the financing and licensing of enterprises that wish to work with the species to produce biodiesel.

José Mauro MA Paz Moreira (

) is a researcher and Tito Carlos Rocha de Sousa (

) economist at Embrapa Cerrados

/ (61) 3388-9945