Environment versus employment: impacts of technological transformations on sugar cane occupation in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, 2007 to 2013

Abstract

We analyzed social and enterprise motivations of recent technological changes in the sugarcane plantations in São Paulo state and its consequences in the sugarcane occupation. We used data from the Program of Work Statistics Dissemination of the Ministry of Labor and Employment of Brazil. It stands out the rapid replacement of manual harvesting of burnt cane by mechanical harvesting of raw cane, as well as the expansion of mechanical planting. With this, the environmental damage fell, the number of sugarcane workers dropped almost in half and there was a decrease of its seasonality occupation in the year. The presence of women and older increased between sugarcane workers, much more than in other sugarcane occupations