Silvopastoral Systems as a Support for Rural Development in the Southwest Region of Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil

Abstract

An economic viability analysis was performed for different eucalypt wood production systems (Eucalyptus grandis Hill ex. Maiden) in two rural properties located in Alegrete County, RS. The traditional pasture system was compared with two other alternative systems, one of them represented by a pasture land converted to homogeneous eucalypt plantation by using two plant densities (2,222 and 1,111 trees.ha-1) and the other represented by a silvopastoral system containing 1,000 and 500 trees.ha-1. The results were analyzed by determining the Internal Retuurn Rate (IRR) and comparing it to the Minimum Attractive Rate (MAR). The alternatives with and without land value were evaluated taking into account the wood price variation (gain and lost of 5%) and the wood yield (gain and lost of 10%). Considering the land value, all alternatives showed that the IRR was lower than the MAR (3.72%). The sensibility analysis showed that when price and yield of the wood had their values increased, for the majority of alternatives considering the practice of thinning, the IRR was higher than the MAR, except to silvopastoral system containing 500 trees.ha-1. The conclusion was that, the forest component implementation is economically viable for the land owner, except by the fact that it is necessary to disregard the land value in this approach.