The expansion of agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon
Abstract
Recent increase in the rate of deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has inflamed discussion about the causes of forest loss, with a special focus on agriculture. This paper studies the expansion of agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon from 1976 to 2001 based on the eight most important products (cattle, bananas, beans, cassava, coffee, maize, rice and soybeans). A biological delimitation of the Amazon based on a map of Brazil's biomes was adopted in order to avoid inclusion of non-forested areas in the analysis. Intense spatial changes in Brazilian agriculture have occurred, with the emergence of new production centres for soybeans and cattle. Several of these regions are located nearby or inside the Amazon's limits. Livestock and soybean cropping in Brazil are consistently moving north. The contribution of the Amazon to Brazilian agriculture rose significantly during the last decades, reaching 28.9% of cassava, 21.3% of banana, 14.2% of rice and 20.0% of cattle production in Brazil in 2001 (three-year average). Cropped area and production in the Amazon have grown at higher annual rates than in the rest of the country for almost all items analysed, supporting the view that the region is a new frontier of Brazilian agriculture. Most recent trends point to a vigorous demand for new land, which will consequently imply a predicted increase in forest clearing.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The newly emergent production chain linking large and smallholders has the potential to undermine Amazonian family farming, with implications for food security.
“The newly emergent production chain linking large and smallholders has the potential to undermine Amazonian family farming, with implications for food security [5].”
From Smallholders, Agrarian Reform, and Globalization in the Brazilian Amazon: Cattle versus the Environment (2016) · cites this paper as [5]
Starting in 1989, crops such as beans, cassava, and coffee, historically important in that region, began to yield space to more commercial products such as soybeans and cattle ranching.
“Starting in 1989, crops, such as beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), and coffee (Coffea arabica L.), which historically were important in that region, began to yield space to more commercial products such as soybeans (Glycine max) and cattle ranching [5].”
From Smallholders, Agrarian Reform, and Globalization in the Brazilian Amazon: Cattle versus the Environment (2016) · cites this paper as [5]
In the Brazilian Amazon, mainly large-scale producers are driving commercial agricultural development, while smallholders are finding it economically viable to replace forest and old croplands by planting pasture.
“In the Brazilian Amazon, it is mainly large-scale producers who are driving commercial agricultural development, while smallholders are finding it economically viable to replace forest and old croplands by planting pasture [5].”
From Smallholders, Agrarian Reform, and Globalization in the Brazilian Amazon: Cattle versus the Environment (2016) · cites this paper as [5]
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Bowman, M. S., Soares-Filho, B. S., Merry, F. D., Nepstad, D. C., Rodrigues, H., & Almeida, O. T. (2012) · Land Use Policy · doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2011.09.009 · Cited by 282 · see citing works
Pereira, R., Simmons, C., & Walker, R. (2016) · Land · doi:10.3390/land5030024 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
- Authors
- SIMON, M. F., & GARAGORRY, F. L.
- Affiliations
- Embrapa (BR)
- Venue
- Environmental Conservation
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2005-09
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 203-212
- ISSN
- 0376-8929 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-4387
- OpenAlex
- W2104166811
- Cited by
- 77
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 24.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Environmental Conservation (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Latin American rural development
- Keywords
- agricultural expansion, Brazilian Amazon, deforestation, forest loss, soybean production, cattle ranching, agricultural frontier, land use change, crop production
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
