In view of this scenario, over the last few years the possible prohibition of sugarcane burning has been discussed. In Brazilian legislation, article 2 of Law no. 11.241/2002, relating to the gradual elimination of trash burning, sets forth a sequence of progressive stages for reducing the practice of burning in areas of more than 150 ha, so that by 2021, the use of sugarcane trash burning will be completely eliminated. On the other hand, in areas of mechanized harvesting of sugarcane without burn, the accumulation of trash on the soil’s surface can exceed 20 t ha−1 (Negrisoli et al., 2007),creating a thick layer of organic waste.