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11 August - Monday
Foreign investment in land and soybeans
in Tocantins - Project Paradise
 Project
Paradise, a joint-venture between Primavera Importação e Exportação de Cereais
and
Animo Internacional S/A (Chicago),
will invest R$ 193 million to plant soybeans in the State of Tocantins. The
planted area for the 2008/09 harvest will be 80,000 hectares, in the regions of
Silvanópolis and National Porto. The planted area will be increased gradually to
about 130,000 hectares for the 2010/11 harvest.
1 August - Friday
Bunge Invests In Ethanol Plants
SAO PAULO, Jul 30, 2008
U.S.-based agribusiness company Bunge Ltd. (BG) plans to invest around 1 billion
Brazilian Reais (US$639 million) in three sugar and ethanol mills in the north
of Brazil, the daily newspaper Valor Economico reported Wednesday.
The first mill is expected to start operations in 2011, Valor quoted an official
of the Tocantins state government as saying. Bunge was unavailable for comment.
Bunge is also planting 2,200 hectares of sugarcane, which will be increased to
100,000 hectares, to supply the three mills in
Tocantins state,
according to Valor.
12 March - Wednesday
President Lula Inaugurates Ag Project
A holiday was declared by the
Prefeito
of
Dianópolis, Tocantins (230 km
SE of Palmas) for the visit of President Lula who inaugurated the Rio Manuel
Aves irrigation project. The President distributed 2,300 ha to five
businessmen and 58 families will receive and divide up 2,200 ha.
27 November - Tuesday
Federal Government Releases
Funds For Norte-Sul
Today R$706 million was
authorized for the construction of the Norte-Sul from Aguiarnópolis (TO) to
Palmas (TO)
18 October - Thursday
First jatropha-based plant in Brazil to open this
fall
Biodiesel
Magazine - By Anduin Kirkbride McElroy
 Austria-based BioDiesel Technologies GmbH (BDT)
announced it has delivered its first biodiesel processing unit to Brazil.
The biodiesel equipment manufacturer and project developer has 17 projects
operating in 10 countries worldwide.
The receiving plant, Compahnhia Productora de Biodiesel de Tocantins, is the
first commercial-scale biodiesel plant in Brazil that will use jatropha as a
feedstock, according to BDT. It is also BDT’s first commercial-scale project
to use jatropha oil. The plant has feedstock agreements in place with local
cooperatives and small farmers in the state of Tocantins who have planted
48,000 hectares (118,611 acres) of jatropha. The plant can also use animal
fat from the state’s 6 million head of cattle.
In a press release, BDT said it would deliver one processing unit in
September and four additional units by the end of the year. Ultimately, the
plant will have the capacity to produce 40,000 metric tons per year (11 MMgy).
Additionally, Compahnhia Productora de Biodiesel de Tocantins is researching
the feasibility of two additional sites within the region, which would add
80,000 metric tons (22 MMgy) of annual production capacity.
In an attempt to promote agricultural production that is both
environmentally and socially sustainable, the government has implemented tax
incentives for biodiesel producers that source their feedstocks from local
communities. Because the plant’s feedstock agreements align with this model,
Compahnhia Productora de Biodiesel de Tocantins expects to take advantage of
these incentives.
10 October - Wednesday
Bioex Ethanol Group of Paraná State
To Build Two Mills In Tocantins
Mill production will be based on sweet potatoes, not sugarcane, and will be
operational the last of 2008. One will be constructed in
Araguaína and the other in
Porto Nacional. Total investment is expect to be about R$ 12 million and
production should reach 100 thousand liters per day between both mills.
This technology for utilizing
sweet potatoes in the production of biofuels was developed by the Universidade
Federal do Tocantins and the State Government of Tocantins over a period of 10
years.
Productivity averages 40 metric tons and producing 4,600 to 10,400 of liters per
hectare.
18 June - Monday
New Sugar/Ethanol Mill
Brazil Bioenergia will
begin construction of their new plant by the end of July. The company
headquarters will be located on Federal Highway BR-242 at kilometer 384 going
from Gurupi to the city of Peixe. The plant will be installed on 30
hectares, which was donated by the Country of
Gurupi.
source: Journal do Tocantins
18 May - Friday
President Lula Inaugurates
Section Norte-Sul
The section running from
Aguiarnópolis to Araguaína was opened today by the President along with the
Governor of the state, Marcelo Miranda. This not gives the northern portion of
Tocantins State direct access to the Itaqui Port on the northern coast of Brazil
in the State of Maranhão.
23 March - Friday
Farm in Tocantins Makes Large
Purchase Of Harvesters
 The
farm Two Rivers, in the region of the Lagoon of the Confusion, in the state of
Tocantins, is initiating its rice harvest by buying 22 1175 John Deere
Harvesters through the John Deere dealer in the city of Gurupi. The farm, an
investment of the Brazilian producers Auke Djkstra and Juarez Slavieiro and the
Two Rivers Farm, LLC group of the United States, has 7,500 hectares (18,000 ac)
of rice.
The Meridional Machines dealership
completed its first year of operation in January. The Meridional reestablished
the presence of the John Deere in the state after a period without the
presence of any John Deere dealers. The opening of the dealership
coincided with a difficult phase of Brazilian agriculture, affirms Fernando
Ogawa, responsible for the dealership. However, he has no doubts that the
agricultural sector is on the rebound in Tocantins. Besides Two Rivers,
others are expanding their activities in the state.
In the region of the Lagoa do
Confusão and Formoso (West of Palmas) and on to the Araguaia River, there are large areas
irrigated in the sub-irrigation system with two crops per year, traditionally
rice during the rainy season and soybeans in the dry season. In the South,
Southeast and North-Central, there are more than 1.5 million hectares (3.6
million ac) of which only 20% is being cultivated.
source: John Deere Brazil
22
January - Wednesday
New Biofuels Plant
To meet demand the Northern region
of Brazil and to export biofuels, Global Trust Agrienergy will build a Biodiesel
plant between the cities of Paraíso do Tocantins on BR 153 and
Palmas. The cost of
the plant is estimated to be R$ 60 million. The complex will include a soybean
crusher, Biofuel processing facilities and lands planted in sunflowers and other
oil based plants. Production capacity will be 100 million liters (26 million
gallons) per year by 2009.
8
August - Tuesday
The Norte-Sul's railroad (FNS) route has been changed to pass through
Araguaína; TO's
second largest city. At a cost of R$85 million of public funds, the
President mandated the change.
(click
map for FNS route)
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