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Sugarcane and Farming Activities: Indicators of Mortality and Retirement ഀ Márcia Azanha Ferraz Dias de Moraesഀ Andrea Rodrigues Ferroഀ Camila Kraide Kretzmannഀ This study seeks to present data for mortality and retirement in sugarcane plantations and in farming activities in general in Brazil. The goal is to verify the proportion of workers involved in the various activities who suffer fatal or non-fatal accidents. ഀ The 2009 Annual Report of Social Information (RAIS – Relação Anual de Informações Sociais), published annually by the Ministry of Labor and Employment, was examined for data on deaths and retirement, both for agricultural activities as a whole and in the specific sector of sugarcane. The literature offers few publications on statistical information of indicators of deaths and retirement by sectors of activity . ഀ The data for death rates in Brazil revealed that both sugarcane and showed low mortality rates in 2009 . Table 1 summarizes the results.ഀ Of the total of 2,237,524 workers employed in all agricultural activities, 3,072 died, representing 0.137% of the total. Of these, 132 or 0.006% died at work or while travelling to or from their place of employment. ഀ For sugarcane, the total of 526 deaths represented 0.124% of the total 425,027 sector workforce. When we consider only those deaths resulting from work-related accidents and travel, the percentage for sugarcane is extremely low, just 14 in a total of 425,027, which represented 0.003% of the total sector workforce.ഀ The analysis by age group shows that sugarcane had its greatest number of deaths in the 50-64 age range, with 28.5% of the sector total. The same trend could be seen in the other agricultural activities. For sugarcane, the second highest band was 40-49 years, with 24.1% of total sector deaths, followed by the 30-39 year age band (16.3% of the total).ഀ