THE EXPANSION OF SUGARCANE AND ITS IMPACTS ON LAND USE DYNAMICS IN QUIRINÓPOLIS-GO

Abstract

Since 2005, the municipality of Quirinópolis-GO has become the scene of the expansion of the sugar and alcohol industry with the arrival of two of the largest plants in the sector in the country. Driven by the global demand for biofuels, ethanol is rapidly expanding and taking over new spaces to form new production chains. Therefore, this article analyzed the spatial dynamics of land use and the expansion of sugarcane cultivation between 1990 and 2020 in the municipality, following the arrival of the sugar and alcohol plants. The data for creating the maps and tables regarding land use were obtained through MapBiomas Collection 7 and processed in QGIS 3.30.2. The increase in the sugarcane production area reached more than 200% and advanced into areas previously occupied by pastures, soybean, corn, sorghum and other temporary crops, reconfiguring their productive structure and the forms of land use and appropriation by agribusiness. The expansion occurred in areas with more favorable soil and climate conditions, close to the mills and the infrastructure inherited from grain logistics. These transformations express the processes of territorial disputes in a context of increasing agricultural intensification in the Cerrado region of southern Goiás.