Cássio Filter
Itwas in2009thatSonárioArndt
became a farmer. Back then, he
and his wife, who was the only child of her parents, received an invitation from
the father-in-law to take over the farm where 80 thousand tobacco plants were
cultivated. Sonário then quit his truck driver job in a neighboring town and be-
gan to face the reality amid seedbeds, curing-barns and bales in the small town
of José Boiteux, in Santa Catarina, with only 4 thousand people.
Married for 22 years, Sonário and Marilene transformed the farm over the
past eight years. The kind of couple that take decisions together and plan their
changes within the holding, both decided to expand the tobacco crop and now
grow 230 thousand plants. “We sit down and talk about what to do, and all steps
are defined together. When it comes to spending themoney, it is again a joint de-
cision. There is no separate pocket”, Sonário jokes.
Thecoupleinvestintechnology tomake as comfortable as possible all everyday
tasks. Besides tobacco, they operate a small dairy herd, which complements their
thefield
Eight years ago, SonárioArndt, in themunicipality of
JoséBoiteux, inSantaCatarina, decided to leave the city
andmove to the countryside to growtobacco
income. With regard to tobacco, they invested in
automatic curing barns and are perfectly aware
of all the details of our labor legislation, seeing
that they employ eleven people at harvest time.
“I am from a time when hoes and horses were
used. Transformation over the past years is im-
pressive. Now we grow more crops with less
work. The tractor has revolutionized the farm.
Knowledge is always welcome. Every detail has
to be considered”, says Marilene.
Over the past years, the couple have invest-
ed strongly in fertilization and soil preparation, in
order to improve the quality of tobacco. “We can
still increase the number of leaves per plant. The
plants are no longer as small as they use to be,
and there is still roomfor advances in thismatter”,
says Sonário, insisting that tobacco is the biggest
source of income in the 42 hectare farm.
If askedabout lifebeforeandafter tobacco, he
simply replies: “I will never go back to town”. Life
in the interior is much better, I love this life. I do
what I feel like doing”, he states.
JOSÉ BOITEUX
– A town in the Itajaí River
Valley, with 4.9 thousand people, located near
Rio do Sul and Blumenau. Tobacco is the lead-
ing agricultural crop in themunicipality.
All roads lead to
Couple invest in
technology
for a more
comfortable routine
93
TABACO EMJOSÉ BOITEAUX
Área colhida
1,46mil hectares
Quantidade produzida
2,5mil toneladas
Rendimentomédio
1,7 tonelada por hectare
Valor da produção
R$ 25milhões
Fonte: InstitutoBrasileirodeGeografiaeEstatística(IBGE).
TOBACCO IN JOSÉ BOITEAUX
Planted area
1.46 thousandhectares
Amount produced
2.5 thousand tons
Average Productivity
1.7 tons per hectare
Value of the production
R$ 25million
Source:Brazilian InstituteofGeographyandStatistics(IBGE).
