Structural Equation Modeling Applied to Socioeconomic Indicators in the Production of Sugarcane, in the State of Goiás

Abstract

Agribusiness has played a strategic role for Brazil's development with the challenge of sustainable agriculture. It is proposed to determine, through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the validity and effects of the relationships between socioeconomic factors of the sugarcane production system in Quirinópolis, providing subsidies to the decision-making process of agricultural establishments. The research methodological approach was quantitative, applying techniques of normality statistics, hypothesis and multivariate analysis without statistical significance (P <0,05). A path diagram model was developed that presented structural quality adjustment and its validated explanatory equations, obtaining relevant R². The results demonstrate that the Equation 1 (IBCcane = 0.02Rcane - 0.75ICcane – 0.46ISVO + 0.35ISPS + error) is explained in 73.7% of its variance (R²), in the Equation 2 (ICcane = 0.59ISVO – 0.45ISPS + 0.35SizeEstablis + error) successor vocation affects 42% on production costs and in the Equation 3 (Rcane = -0.40 AgroDistance – 0.16ISPS + error) the distance between farm and agribusiness influences 72% on the proposed revenue mix. The SEM analysis verified that social factors influence the economic factors that compose the sugarcane production system studied. The path diagram proved that the influence track relative to the costs in the proposed model is more representative than revenue for the economic results of rural sugarcane establishments.