The Sugar Consortium of Industrial Companies, CAEI, recognizes the vital role of soils in ensuring food security and sustaining the sugar agroindustry from a sustainability perspective. Over the past decade, the company has made significant strides in replacing chemical fertilizers with organic alternatives derived from waste generated in its manufacturing process and other local industries.
Annually, CAEI processes and repurposes 68,500 tons of waste from the sugar agro-industrial process and neighboring industries, replacing 22,500 quintals of synthetic chemical fertilizers with organic sources. This initiative not only creates new employment opportunities but also promotes the reuse of materials that were previously considered waste.
The adoption of organic fertilizers has led to improved agricultural yields, enhanced soil fertility in sugarcane plantations, increased business profitability, and benefited the surrounding communities.
Project objectives and description:
The initiative aims to reduce the ecological footprint of agricultural activities on approximately 3,000 hectares per year of CAEI’s sugarcane plantations by substituting synthetic chemical fertilizers with organic alternatives.
It also focuses on reusing waste from the sugar agro-industrial process to ensure safe management with a circular economy approach, ultimately enhancing soil fertility using organic-rich fertilizers.
How is the program implemented?
The organic fertilizer production and application program is based on a circular economy scheme, which guarantees the reuse of residues from the sugar agro-industrial process and other related agricultural sectors in the vicinity.
The implementation process has been accompanied by a research program, which has contributed to the optimization of the production process and field operation.
In recent years, this proposal was recognized as Excellence in the fifth version of the Ministry of the Environment’s Cleaner Production Award (2019) and was also included in the Third Catalogue of SDG Promising Practices (December 2022), an action coordinated by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Private Enterprise Council (CONEP).
The organic fertilizer production and application program is based on a circular economy scheme, which guarantees the reuse of waste from the sugar agro-industrial process and other agriculture-related sectors nearby.
The implementation process has been accompanied by a research program, which has contributed to the optimization of the production process and field operation.
In recent years, this proposal was recognized as Excellence in the fifth version of the Ministry of the Environment’s Cleaner Production Award (2019) and was also included in the Third Cleaner Production Catalog of the Ministry of the Environment.
For CAEI, sustainable management is a practice that has allowed it to be part of recognitions that validate this effort and enthusiasm to sustainably produce sugarcane. Thus, the company has participated in the first catalog of Promising Practices, both with the Integrated Waste Management initiative, in 2020, as well as in 2021 in the second document of this type with the project on biological control of natural enemies of sugarcane. The latter project was also recognized as Excellence in the sixth version of the Cleaner Production Award in 2021.
Results
- Increased production of 5 to 30 tons of sugarcane per hectare compared to conventional chemical fertilization.
- Reduction of the carbon footprint: a reduction in emissions of 2,279,661 tons of CO2 has been calculated, due to the use of organic fertilizers to replace conventional chemical fertilizers.
CAEI transforms sugarcane into crystals through an efficient process that applies the most rigorous and sustainable standards.