Economic indicators for ethanol production from starch crops under different irrigation managements

ABSTRACT The study aims to quantify the production costs of maize and sorghum crops under rainfed irrigated conditions for generation ethanol evaluate economic feasibility in different scenarios marketing price. Two experiments were carried out years 2019/2020 2020/2021, an experimental area at Federal University Santa Maria, RS, Brazil. experiment was strip plots, a randomized block design four replicates. Three irrigation depths, 0, 50 100% reference evapotranspiration (ETo), as first factor, two cultivars one grain cultivar second using 45 scenarios. use full (100% ETo) reduces liter by 15 17.89% increases 44.18 48.25% crops, respectively. For market price R$ 2.00 L-1, does not show good performance, with negative net present value (NPV) internal rate return (IRR). sale 4.00 L-1 is best scenario, values NPV 90,356.93, IRR 33.83%, benefit/cost ratio (B/C) 2.28, profitability index (PI) 3.99 payback three years. Maize economically viable all Full represent mean 204,381.68, 63.35%, B/C 2.96, PI 8.67 1.58 years, among cultivars.