Cattle Ranching in Colombia: A Monolithic Industry?
Open accessAbstract
This article analyzes literature on the history of cattle ranching and agricultural innovation adoption in Colombia to understand how livestock production systems have evolved from the 1950s until today. Departing from new scholarship that has questioned the idea that cattle ranching has been only a land-grabbing strategy dominated by few elites, this article focuses on the adoption of improved pastures and the role of key institutions such as the CIAT on the transformation of practices and the shortcomings of technification. It shows that Colombia has had big transformations with the introduction of improved pastures, particularly Brachiaria, but these transformations did not translate into a radical change in the dominant extensive livestock production systems. Instead of promoting intensification, the adoption of Brachiaria has allowed producers to expand more, often resulting in large deforestation. One of the main contributions of this article is the analysis of economic, developmentalist, and institutional reports that are not often used to construct historical analysis. It can also serve to scholars interested on adoption of agricultural techniques.
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Grass varieties such as Guinea, Pará and Yaraguá were adopted but eventually replaced by 'improved' Brachiaria spp. pastures, which have led to increased milk and beef yields.
“Grass varieties such as Guinea, Pará and Yaraguá were adopted but eventually replaced by”
From Beyond the “supply chain” framing: Cattle ranching as a vanishing mediator of deforestation and dispossession in the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon (2026) · cites this paper as Campuzano et al., 2022
The Conclusions (p. 100) describe the introduction of Guinea, Pará and Yaraguá between 1850 and 1950, followed by Brachiaria species after the 1970s. The section on pasture adoption says Brachiaria improved milk and beef production. The paper does not establish that Brachiaria replaced those earlier grasses. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Research works printed but not linked: 30
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Bastos Lima, M. G., & López, J. (2026) · World Development · doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107532
- Authors
- Campuzano, L., Angel, N. T., & Burkart, S.
- Affiliations
- Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins (CL)
- International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CO)
- Venue
- Historia Ambiental Latinoamericana y Caribeña (HALAC) revista de la Solcha
- Published
- 2022-08-16
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 81-106
- ISSN
- 2237-2717 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4292014255
- Cited by
- 8
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2023: 3
- FWCI
- 1.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Historia Ambiental Latinoamericana y Caribeña (HALAC) revista de la Solcha (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (publishedVersion)
- CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Demography › History and Politics in Latin America
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Latin American rural development
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Livestock Farming and Management
- Keywords
- cattle ranching, livestock production systems, improved pastures, Brachiaria, agricultural innovation adoption, CIAT, technification, extensive livestock farming, deforestation, land grabbing, developmentalism, agricultural history, Colombia
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