Economic viability of the retirement age for sugarcane plantations

Currently, sugarcane field renovation is a fundamentally technical decision, based on the experience of technicians, especially in the use of important indicators that support this decision-making process, for the purpose of obtaining profit. Therefore, the use of analytical tools that can assist in project management is essential. This work aimed to apply the use of economic project analysis indicators, evaluating the financial returns of a sugarcane field cycle at different cutting stages, in order to determine the cutting stage that offers the most suitable economic point for its renovation and the possibility of indicating its use as a quick, safe, and practical option in the sugarcane field renovation decision. Some data, production indicators, defined as basic premises, served for the calculations of the Net Present Value with different dates [NPV] and the Annual Net Present Value [ANPV] for a sugarcane field in the traditional Central-South region of Brazil. The ANPV was used because it is a method that compares projects with different periods, which made it relevant to solving the problem proposed in this work. After analysis, without varying the indicators, it was found that sugarcane field renovation can be done in the seventh harvest. When the variation of different production indicators and scenarios was studied, in a sensitivity analysis, there was an alternation in the ideal economic point for renovation, indicating, therefore, a change in the ideal harvest stage for renovation. This indicates that the tool is practical, flexible, and can assist and be recommended in the decision-making process for sugarcane field renovation by producers and managers in the sector.