Search

A crucial aspect analysed during the last years, aiming to improve sugarcane production, is the impact of climate change on sugarcane productivity. One of the strategies to mitigate climate change's impact on sugarcane yield is the development of new varieties known to positively affect crop production. This paper analysed how climate change impacts sugarcane production regarding the different planted varieties. Data regarding sugarcane harvest were collected from a cooperative in the south of Goiás state—Brazil, the second biggest national sugarcane producer. Results indicate that climate impact on sugarcane yield is irrelevant when controlling for different varieties. Considering the results presented in this work, the Brazilian government should keep the incentives for the development of new sugarcane varieties and, at the same time, spur sugarcane producers to use the new sugarcane varieties. The results imply that if the variety is correctly chosen, sugarcane can be produced without harming the environment, contributing to reaching SDG 15. Moreover, it is less probable that an adverse climatic event will destroy the planted area, preventing sugarcane producers from severe loss and contributing to achieving SDGs number 1 and 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente is the property of Universidade Federal do Parana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper aims to analyze the economy-wide and regional effects of climate change-induced productivity decrease in Brazil. Our methodological framework was based on the General Equilibrium Analysis of the Brazilian Economy Project—PAEGDyn, a dynamic CGE model. The results show that the projected falls in agricultural productivity impose reductions in the performance of Brazilian GDP over time. Even with the use by other sectors of the economy of the factors unemployed in agriculture, there is no intersectoral compensation in economic production over time able to bring it back to the reference trajectory. In addition, the impact will be greater in warmer and poor regions, which depend on agriculture and present greater income inequality, accentuated by the free mobility of production factors within the national border. Therefore, the main implication of this study is the need to allocate scarce resources for adaptation and mitigation policies primarily for these regions, including broadly stimulating economic development with more income distribution. This will allow these regions to protect themselves by making investments in new technologies and modern infrastructure for the agricultural sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analysed the effect of freshwater withdrawals and management on agricultural and industrial sectors productivity in the emerging market economies. The auto-regressive distributed lag model and the panel analyses were employed in our estimations. Our result revealed that Brazil had better water use efficiency in agricultural production with annual withdrawals which contribute significantly and positively to the increase in crop and livestock index. In contrast, annual withdrawals for agriculture were considered to be least efficient in Russia, followed by China and India, although, in South Africa, the result suggested an insignificant positive effect in the incremental index. Furthermore, our analysis revealed that freshwater withdrawals have a significant positive impact on industrial outputs in South Africa. Similarly, water withdrawals were positively related to industrial sector productivity in China and Russia. Brazil and India appear to be the least efficient countries where withdrawals impacted negatively (and significantly for Brazil) on industrial sector outputs. Our panel analyses showed that freshwater withdrawals were positively associated with crop and livestock production index and industrial outputs in the BRICS economies. However, the magnitude of the impacts was only significant for the industrial sector. Moreover, investments and private participation in water and sanitation projects impacted significantly and positively in productivity in both sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural is the property of Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Climate change is a spontaneous process which can be observed over a longer duration of time - around ten to fifteen years. It refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Climate variation has been identified as the major cause of year-to-year fluctuations in agricultural production in both developed and developing countries. The present paper investigates the impact of climate change on agricultural productivity by employing the stochastic frontier production function proposed by Battese and Coelli (1995) with time varying effect using panel data spanning from 1995 to 2022 for four leading agricultural countries - Brazil, China, India and US. The stochastic frontier production function is based on the Cobb-Douglas production function in which agricultural output is regressed on various inputs along with the climate parameter to capture the technical efficiency effects involved in production function. The estimated results suggest that there is a significant negative impact of climate change on agricultural production as well as its technical efficiency. The correlation results also indicate that climate change has a detrimental impact on agricultural output as well as labour productivity. There is need for policies that jointly address sustainable development and climate change. Three broad categories of action are required - cutting emissions, adapting to climate change and financing for required adjustments. Alternative development pathways such as pursuing institutional changes and stimulating clean technology innovations can affect climate change. While excessive government intervention is inadvisable, if climate change is left unchecked, it will be a drag on the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coffee farms receive ecosystem services that rely on pollinators and pest predators. Landscape-scale processes regulate the flow of these biodiversity-based services. Consequently, the coffee farms' surrounding landscape impacts coffee production. This paper investigates how landscape structure can influence coffee production at different scales. We also evaluated the predictive utility of landscape metrics in a spatial (farm level) and aspatial approach (municipality level). We tested the effect of landscape structure on coffee production for 25 farms and 30 municipalities in southern Brazil. We used seven landscape metrics at landscape and class levels to measure the effect of landscape structure. At the farm level, we calculated metrics in five buffers from 1 to 5 km from the farm centroid to measure their scale of effect. We conducted a model selection using the generalized linear model (GLM) with a Gamma error distribution and inverse link function to evaluate the impact of landscape metrics on coffee production in both spatial and aspatial approaches. The landscape intensity index had a negative effect on coffee production (AICc = 375.59, p < 0.001). The native forest patch density (AICc = 390.14, p = 0.011) and landscape diversity (AICc = 391.18, p = 0.023) had a positive effect on production. All significant factors had effects at the farm level in the 2 km buffer but no effects at the municipality level. Our findings suggest that the landscape composition in the immediate surroundings of coffee farms helps predict production in a spatially explicit approach. However, these metrics cannot detect the impact of the landscape when analyzed in an aspatial approach. These findings highlight the importance of the landscape spatial structure, mainly the natural one, in the stability of coffee production. This study enhanced the knowledge of coffee production dependence on landscape-level processes. This advance can help to improve the sustainability of land use and better planning of agriculture, ensuring food and economic safety. Furthermore, our framework provides a method that can be useful to scrutinize any cropping system with census data that is either spatialized or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Engenharia na Agricultura is the property of Engenharia na Agricultura and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The relationship between the productivity of crops of agricultural interest and their interactions with physicochemical soil properties is widely explored. However, there is still a gap concerning the contribution of biological soil attributes and especially the relationship between crop productivity and the structures of organism communities within the soil, such as the enchytraeids. This paper aimed to evaluate the diversity and structures of enchytraeids communities in subtropical soils and their relationship with soybean productivity and soil properties within a no‐tillage system. This study was conducted in soybean growing grounds working under no‐till farming systems in southern Brazil. Samples were collected according to ISO 23611‐3 and extracted with the hot–wet methodology. The organisms were identified up to their genus level. Enchytraeids density increased with the increase of soybean productivity for both evaluated crops. Enchytraeus, Fridericia, and Hemienchytraeus were more abundant in high productivity and genus Achaeta was only found in the second crop and was not a sensitive indicator toward changes in soybean productivity. Regarding the relationship between the enchytraeid community and soil attributes, the variables clay, phosphorus, moisture contents, pH, Ca/Mg as well as carbon and nitrogen from soil and litter, affected Enchytraeidae distribution. Enchytreids showed significant correlations with soybean productivity in the no‐tillage system for subtropical soils in Brazil, demonstrating potential bioindicators of soil quality and consequently of soybean productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the economic impacts of climate change over the Brazilian regions until the end of the century. We estimate the direct and indirect impact of the projected changes in climate on the yield of the country's main crops. The results point to a broad spatial heterogeneity of impacts across the country. Using the extreme scenarios created by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (RCP 2.6 and 8.5), our predictions indicate that the average annual losses due to climate change range from 0.4% to 1.8% of Brazilian gross domestic product until the end of the century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista CESUMAR: Ciências Humanas e Sociais Aplicadas is the property of Revista Cesumar - Ciencias Humanas e Sociais Aplicadas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Bioethanol production in Brazil gained momentum in the 1970s and 1980s as an energy security and energy sufficiency measure due to the well‐known world oil crisis. However, the increase in bioethanol production and consumption in the past couple of decades has been backed by the country's efforts and measures to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the transport sector. Brazil is the second largest producer of biofuels, and its production continues to increase because of the commitments made in the Paris Agreement in 2015. This study reviews several key policies designed to develop Brazilian bioethanol production and to protect the environment. It is argued that many of these policies do not consider land use change or encourage land protection to achieve sustainable land use and agricultural production. Thus, this work aims to understand the importance and impacts of public policies in expanding sugarcane in Brazil in the past 34 years, with regard to land use and native vegetation. The discussion in this paper addresses the inadequacy of current policies to avoid direct and indirect land use change caused by sugarcane expansion, despite incentives such as 17 Sustainable Development Goals from the United Nations and certification schemes. The data presented indicate an indirect effect caused by the expansion of sugarcane over pasture areas, which leads to further clearing of natural vegetation to establish new pasture areas. Ultimately, this study addresses the importance of zero deforestation in Brazil, regardless of the crop that causes the conversion. Without conjoint efforts by all sectors of the economy to curtail deforestation, the sustainability of producing biofuels is not guaranteed, as the emissions caused by deforestation will not be offset by the lower GHG emissions obtained by using ethanol as a transport fuel. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The practice of field burning has been used for many years in the south regions of Brazil as an ideal way to maintain pastures. The purpose of this paper is to understand if such activity is logically explicable or if it is the result of a cultural reality, being "prisoner" of this technique because of path dependence, within the paradigm of the path dependence theory. Design/methodology/approach -- This present research is exploratory. The use of cases study was the most appropriate technique to explore the field burning practices and their impact in this specific region of Brazil, while describing its context, for which limits are not clearly defined. Thus, this research carries out a multi-case study that provides a greater perception than a single case and has an identical methodological structure. Findings -- This paper analyzed the reasons why the producers insist with the procedure and identified these reasons are not merely economical. The study demonstrates a clear path dependent process and it became obvious that once the technique is part of the family use history, it anchors a strong conviction that field burning is actually the best technique to be used for land maintenance. Research limitations/implications -- This work suggests a need for other specific researches to substantially complement field burning practices to other phenomenon. Practical implications -- The fact that alternative techniques are rejected, giving priority to field burning, it may suggest that other situations and practices may be tied to inadequate or less profitable technologies as well (milk, confined raising, pasturing). The study raises the question on the validity of such practice as a paradigm of reason and pragmatism, or as a "Platoons Cavern" in which they are "trapped" in their decision process developed over time. Originality/value -- Presence and implications of environmental laws, which tend to be observed by the producers much more because they fear punishment than because they really understand the benefits of its application; showing the government's failure in teaching and informing the producers about environmental laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Retratos de Assentamentos is the property of Revista Retratos de Assentamentos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of RBPG. Revista Brasileira de Pós-Graduação is the property of Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Population growth and rising incomes have led to increasing global demand for meat products. Meeting this demand without converting remaining natural ecosystems or further degrading ecosystems is one of the largest global sustainability challenges. A critical step to overcoming this challenge is to increase the productivity of livestock grazing systems, which occupy the largest land area of any type of agriculture globally. Integrated crop−livestock systems (iCL), which re-couple crop and livestock production at the farm scale, have been considered a promising strategy to tackle this challenge by restoring degraded pasturelands and providing supplemental nutrition to livestock. However, few studies have analyzed the economic viability of such systems, especially in Brazil, an important player in global food systems. This paper presents an economic analysis of iCL in Mato Grosso, Brazil, the largest grain and beef producer in the country, which spans the ecologically diverse Amazon, Cerrado and Pantanal biomes. We compare the economic performance of an integrated soybean/corn and beef cattle system to a continuous crop (soybean/corn) system and a continuous livestock (beef cattle) production system from 2005 to 2012. We use empirical case study data to characterize a 'typical' farm for each production system within the study region. We find that the integrated crop−livestock system has a higher annual net present value (NPV) per hectare (ha) than continuous cropping or livestock under a range of discount rates. However, under a scenario of substantially higher crop prices, the continuous cropping outperforms iCL. While iCL is not feasible in all regions of the Amazon and Cerrado, our results indicate that in places where the biophysical and market conditions are suitable for production, it could be a highly profitable way to intensify cattle production and potentially spare land for other uses, including conservation. Nevertheless, additional credit and technical support may be needed to overcome high upfront costs and informational barriers to increase iCL areas as a sustainable development strategy for agriculture in the Amazon and Cerrado regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the impact of climate change on agricultural productivity. Cross-sectional variation in climate among Brazilian municipalities is used to estimate an equation in which geographical attributes determine agricultural productivity. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predictions based on atmosphere–ocean, coupled with general circulation models (for 2030–2049), are used to simulate the impacts of climate change. Our estimates suggest that global warming under the current technological standards is expected to decrease the agricultural output per hectare in Brazil by 18 per cent, with the effects on municipalities ranging from−40 to+15 per cent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a dataset of yearly land use and land cover classification maps for Mato Grosso State, Brazil, from 2001 to 2017. Mato Grosso is one of the world's fast moving agricultural frontiers. To ensure multi-year compatibility, the work uses MODIS sensor analysis-ready products and an innovative method that applies machine learning techniques to classify satellite image time series. The maps provide information about crop and pasture expansion over natural vegetation, as well as spatially explicit estimates of increases in agricultural productivity and trade-offs between crop and pasture expansion. Therefore, the dataset provides new and relevant information to understand the impact of environmental policies on the expansion of tropical agriculture in Brazil. Using such results, researchers can make informed assessments of the interplay between production and protection within Amazon, Cerrado, and Pantanal biomes. Measurement(s) land • land use Technology Type(s) computational modeling technique Factor Type(s) year • geographic location • land use and cover class Sample Characteristic - Environment land Sample Characteristic - Location Mato Grosso State Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.11440461 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed to analyze the relationships between the variables price, consumption and supply of electricity in rural Brazil and the different public pricing policies applied to the sector. To this end, an autoregressive time series model (VAR) and Granger causality are used, with data from the rural electricity sector, from 1996 to 2020, distributed quarterly. Among the contributions, it is observed that the policy of universalization of access to electrification can be considered a success regarding the number of consumer units reached, however, there is a need for a review regarding the pricing policies applied, since there is a bidirectional relationship, in which Production causes Consumption and Consumption causes Production, but Price does not cause Production, but causes Consumption. This is in line with the results of the VAR model which show that an increase in the price of energy in the Rural Zone would reduce its consumption, negatively impacting productivity, since energy is an important input for production and income in the agricultural sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the contribution of agricultural output prices and policies to the reduction in Amazon deforestation in the 2000s. Based on a panel of Amazon municipalities from 2002 through 2009, we first show that deforestation responded to agricultural output prices. After controlling for price effects, we find that conservation policies implemented beginning in 2004 and 2008 significantly contributed to the curbing of deforestation. Counterfactual simulations suggest that conservation policies avoided approximately 73,000 km2 of deforestation, or 56 per cent of total forest clearings that would have occurred from 2005 through 2009 had the policies adopted beginning in 2004 and 2008 not been introduced. This is equivalent to an avoided loss of 2.7 billion tonnes of stored carbon dioxide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contradictions between impressive levels of economic growth and the persistence of poverty and inequality are perhaps nowhere more evident than in rural Brazil. While Brazil might appear to be an example of the potential harmony between large-scale, export-oriented agribusiness and small-scale family farming, high levels of rural resistance contradict this vision. In this introductory paper, we synthesize the literature on agrarian resistance in Brazil and situate recent struggles in Brazil within the Latin American context more broadly. We highlight seven key characteristics of contemporary Latin American resistance, which include: the growth of international networks, the changing structure of state–society collaboration, the deepening of territorial claims, the importance of autonomy, the development of alternative economies, continued opposition to dispossession, and struggles over the meaning of nature. We argue that by analyzing rural mobilization in Brazil, this collection offers a range of insights relevant to rural contention globally. Each contribution in this collection increases our understanding of alternative agricultural production, large-scale development projects, education, race and political parties in the contemporary agrarian context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper studies the dynamic relationships between per-capita combustible renewables and waste (CRW) consumption, agricultural value added (AVA), carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and real gross domestic product (GDP) for the case of Brazil, spanning the period 1980–2013. There is long-run cointegration between the considered variables. Short-run empirical findings reveal that there is a unidirectional causality running from agriculture to CO2 emissions and to GDP. However, there is long-run bidirectional causality between all considered variables. The long-run estimates show that both CRW consumption and AVA contribute to increase economic growth and to decrease CO2 emissions. Agricultural production and CRW consumption appear to play substitutable roles in the Brazilian economy as increasing CRW consumption reduces AVA in the long run, and vice versa. In addition, economic growth increases agricultural production and CRW production. Brazil is advised to continue encouraging agriculture and biofuels productions. The present substitutability between agriculture and biofuels productions could be reduced or even stopped by encouraging second-generation biofuels and discouraging first-generation biofuels. This may be done by policies of subsidization or of taxation, encouraging R&D and giving advantageous credits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, an exhaustive revision is given of the literature associated with advanced information and communication technologies in agriculture within a window of 25 years using bibliometric tools enabled to detect of the main actors, structure, and dynamics in the scientific papers. The main findings are a trend of growth in the dynamics of publications associated with advanced information and communication technologies in agriculture productivity. Another assertion is that countries, like the USA, China, and Brazil, stand out in many publications due to allocating more resources to research, development, and agricultural productivity. In addition, the collaboration networks between countries are frequently in regions with closer cultural and idiomatic ties; additionally, terms' occurrence are obtained with Louvain algorithm predominating four clusters: precision agriculture, smart agriculture, remote sensing, and climate smart agriculture. Finally, the thematic-map characterization with Callon's density and centrality is applied in three periods. The first period of thematic analysis shows a transition in detecting the variability of a nutrient, such as nitrogen, through the help of immature georeferenced techniques, towards greater remote sensing involvement. In the transition from the second to the third stage, the maturation of technologies, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, wireless sensor networks, and the machine learning area, is observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the increasing population worldwide, in recent years, an exponential increase in agricultural practices has occurred in order to attend to the growing demand for food. Unfortunately, this increase is not associated with the supply of foodstuffs free of environmental pollutants. In Brazil, agriculture is one of the most important economic pillars, making the country one of the largest consumers of pesticides around the world. The intense use of pesticides, mainly glyphosate, 2,4-D, and atrazine, constitutes an essential factor in the viability of this great agricultural productivity. Sugarcane, corn, soybean, and citrus crops consume around 66% of the total pesticides worldwide, representing 76% of the planted area. Pesticide residues have been frequently detected in food and the environment, becoming a significant concern for human health. Monitoring programs for pesticide use are essential to reduce the potential negative impacts on the environment and improve the overall efficiency and sustainability of their use. However, in Brazil, the approval status of pesticide-active ingredients is very discrepant compared to other agricultural countries. Moreover, the duality of benefits and risks of pesticide application creates an economic and toxicological conflict. In this paper, we have critically reviewed the duality of risks-benefits of the use of pesticides in agriculture and the current Brazilian legislation issues. We have also compared this flawed legislation with other countries with high economic potential. Due to the negative environmental impacts on soil and water by the high levels of pesticides, remediation techniques, sustainable agriculture, and the development of new technologies can be considered some viable alternatives to reduce the levels in these compartments. Besides, this paper includes some recommendations that can be included in the coming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shift from a fossil-based to a bio-based economy (bioeconomy) requires more efficient utilization of the biomass generated from agricultural production. This can be achieved through the cascading use of biomass, which also offers the potential of creating additional value from biomass by developing novel products. Taking sugarcane as a case study example, this paper aims to analyze how well Brazil, the world’s leader in sugarcane production, is positioned to reach these goals. The paper combines two conceptual tools: one is the ‘biomass-based value web’, which was developed as an extension of the value chain concept with the aim to capture the links within and between value chains that arise from the cascading and joined use of biomass. The other concept is that of the ‘national innovation system’ (NIS), which serves to identify the different types of actors involved in the biomass value web and the linkages between them. For empirical data collection, the study combined three methods: a mapping of the physical biomass flows in the value web, in-depth interviews with the actors involved, and the application of the ‘Net-Map’ tool to identify the actors in the NIS and their linkages. The findings show that the development of Brazil’s international competitiveness in sugar and ethanol was based on political incentives that resulted in a strong network of institutions that focused on these two products. However, to become a front-runner in the future bioeconomy, the existing innovation network needs to be expanded. In particular, it is important to integrate national and international private sector organizations. The findings also suggest that industries need stronger incentives to collaborate with knowledge institutions. Long-term consistent policies and funding opportunities for risky investments are also required to further strengthen Brazil’s innovation network to meet future opportunities and challenges of the bioeconomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In tropical areas, pioneer occupation fronts steer the rapid expansion of deforestation, contributing to carbon emissions. Up-to-date carbon emission estimates covering the long-term development of such frontiers depend on the availability of high spatial-temporal resolution data. In this paper, we provide a detailed assessment of carbon losses from deforestation and potential forest degradation from fragmentation for one expanding frontier in the Brazilian Amazon. We focused on one of the Amazonia's hot-spots of forest loss, the BR-163 highway that connects the high productivity agricultural landscapes in Mato Grosso with the exporting harbors of the Amazon. We used multi-decadal (1984-2012) Landsat-based time series on forested and non-forested area in combination with a carbon book-keeping model. We show a 36% reduction in 1984s biomass carbon stocks, which led to the emission of 611.5 TgCO between 1985 and 1998 (43.6 TgCO year) and 959.8 TgCO over 1999-2012 (68.5 TgCO year). Overall, fragmentation-related carbon losses represented 1.88% of total emissions by 2012, with an increasing relevance since 2004. We compared the Brazilian Space Agency deforestation assessment (PRODES) with our data and found that small deforestation polygons not captured by PRODES had increasing importance on estimated deforestation carbon losses since 2000. The comparative analysis improved the understanding of data-source-related uncertainties on carbon estimates and indicated disagreement areas between datasets that could be subject of future research. Furthermore, spatially explicit, annual deforestation and emission estimates like the ones derived from this study are important for setting regional baselines for REDD+ or similar payment for ecosystem services frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transfers, in the form of subsidies, are a government intervention aimed at boosting economic development. These are provided through various instruments that affect production and trade. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development classifies these instruments into categories from most to least distorting. In its strategy of deregulating the world market, it encourages the use of the latter in agricultural policy. Nonetheless, the effect of this recommendation on the value of agricultural production has been poorly researched. This work assessed the relationship between the amounts of support in different agricultural policy instruments used and the value of the production of subsidized agricultural products (VpS) in Mexico, Brazil, and Chile during the period 1995-2020, through a multiple linear regression model with the stepwise backward elimination procedure. The results show that the transfer items that were relevant to explain the VpS in Mexico were: storage, marketing and other physical infrastructure, support based on area and number of animals, extension services, safety and inspection of agricultural products and institutional infrastructure (p< 0.05), in Brazil they were: research, market prices and education (p< 0.05) and in Chile they were: research, storage, marketing and other physical infrastructure, and farm restructuring (p< 0.05). It should be noted that all instruments with a significant effect on the VpS are classified as less distortive, except for the market price support present in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil has emerged as an agro-export powerhouse: from being a net-agricultural importer and food aid recipient as recently as the 1960s and 1970s, it has now become the world’s third largest agricultural exporter, after the US and EU. What is more, Brazil’s new role as a major agricultural trader has provided an important foundation for its enhanced status and influence in global economic governance, as an emerging power and one of the ‘BRICS’. This paper analyses how such a remarkable transformation was brought about. I argue that Brazil’s emergence as an agricultural powerhouse was the result not of its natural factor endowments, but extensive intervention on the part of the Brazilian state that had the effect of constructing a new comparative advantage. This transformation was propelled by state-driven innovation and related policies that opened up massive new areas of the country to agriculture, enabled it to shift to producing goods in direct competition with the world’s dominant agricultural exporters, and generated significant gains in productivity and competitiveness. The irony is that the intention of these policies, initiated in the 1970s, was to foster industrial development in Brazil as part of its import-substitution industrialisation programme, yet they wound up having precisely the opposite effect – transforming Brazil into one of the world’s dominant agricultural powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Global Science & Technology is the property of Global Science & Technology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Integrated planning of agricultural and industrial productions in an agrichain may increase the competitiveness of the entire chain and bring benefits to all of its agents. In turn, systems dynamics models could be used to explore and assess quantitatively these benefits. The main objective of this paper was to build a system dynamics model to assess whether integrated mechanisms of agricultural and industrial production planning can improve the competitive performance of the citrus agrisystem in Brazil. The scenarios tested by the model used the gradual introduction of new orange varieties and technological changes in the citrus production. Our paper considers that changes in these parameters have the potential to provide gains to the system by using the expanded capacity implemented by the industries throughout the year, by reducing inventories and blending operations, reducing costs by eliminating seasonal workers, among other factors. The results achieved from the model indicate that integrated production planning mechanisms can effectively improve the coordination of agro-industrial production systems. Moreover, it was demonstrated that models based on Systems Dynamics are suitable to assess these improvements. The model application and assessment results showed that integrated planning can increase the income per hectare of agricultural producers by 70% and the agribusinesses EBITDA margin by 43%. Thus, this study has shown that the use of integrated planning mechanisms is an important strategy for the Brazilian citrus agribusiness system to exploit its growth potential and to remain competitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2003, Brazil has been searching for efficient modalities directed at deepening ties with Latin American and African states, such as knowledge sharing and engaging in dialogue on alternative ways of tackling common development challenges. Considered by Brazilian policymakers to be expressions of solidarity diplomacy, these concepts and modalities are part of what has been coined Brazil's "autonomy through diversification" strategy. Brazilian presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff consecutively pursued geopolitical realignments focused on the creation of a multipolar world order with a strengthened, more visible position for Brazil, an emerging world power. This paper will examine the practical and theoretical implications of Brazil's reconceptualization of its role as a donor of development aid, as well as donor-recipient relations as expressed in the two presidents' official speeches, documents of the Brazilian Cooperation Agency, and COBRADI reports Furthermore, it will explore whether Brazil's declared role as a development partner and its practices in the capacity thereof are consistent with the expectations of other significant development cooperation actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dominant conceptions of social movements consider their constitutive feature thedisruptionof order, not practices aroundbuildingit. In this paper, I challenge this notion by analyzing the Landless Workers' Movement (MST)'s relatively successful efforts toinstitutionalizethe practices of agricultural production developed by its members in cooperatives and agroecology. Through this analysis, I show that the movement's administration of a democratically managed form of agricultural production exemplifies a unique form of social movement resistance – namely, what I callself-governmentalresistance.Rather than reformist or revolutionary contention, self-governmental resistance – performed by movements like the MST –redevelopsstate policies by vying for and often taking control over the design and implementation of agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Brazil has favored agribusiness instead of family farming. In the agribusiness production networks, food is nottreated as a social right, but rather as a commodity whose primary purpose is to obtain profit. This paper aims to contribute to the debate on the intrinsic relationship between agribusiness expansion and hunger in Brazil. Our starting point are some of the pillars that support food as a commodity, like ultra-processed food and economic concentration in its production and distribution. The methodology was structured according to the basic principles of qualitative research for the construction of a critical analysis. We conclude that in addition to the increase in production and productivity of agribusiness, we have the growth of people without access to food, showing that these processes are sides of the same coin. We also note that although hunger increased exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic, agri-food businesses and supermarkets were among the most profitable during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes a dimension of the agricultural production in Brazil, highlighting the one carried out downtown or by its inhabitants in the suburb areas. Geographic and other fields of knowledge approaches were dealt with to underline the peculiarities of urban alimentary supply, among them, the frequent supply shortages, which used to drive citizens to produce a part of the items for self-consumption and another for the local commerce. The exportation economy characteristics, with consequent land and work force concentration, allied to restrictive social and territorial division of urban work in the colonial and imperial periods are fundamental for understanding the production process downtown or in suburb areas. At last, we highlight the structural shift which took place in the country due to the consolidation of an internal alimentary production as well as to transformations in towns growth logic which had a peak with the urban agricultural producers' reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Brazilian Review of Economics & Agribusiness / Revista de Economia e Agronegócio is the property of Brazilian Review of Economics & Agribusiness / Revista de Economia e Agronegocio and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of a Brazilian rural credit program, The National Program for Strengthening Family Farming (PRONAF), on small family farming production. Design/methodology/approach: The method is based on a quasi-experimental approach (propensity score matching) applied to 4.1m family farmers in Brazil. Findings: Results show that farmers accessing PRONAF tended to be positively selected in terms of several observable characteristics, such as land size and agricultural practices. Moreover, PRONAF had positive and differentiated impacts on agricultural production. The impact was larger in the poorest region when compared to the regions characterized by intensive and commercial farming. Research limitations/implications: The rural credit information was restricted to one crop year, making impossible to analyze the mid- and long-term impacts of the credit program on agricultural production. Practical implications: The study provides some practical implications for policies of rural development. First, rural credit does matter for agricultural production of small family farmers. Nonetheless, since credit programs are large subsidized by the rest of the population, further studies are still needed the aggregate costs and benefits of these schemes. Results also revealed that PRONAF may have contributed to reduce regional inequalities, since the impact was larger in the poorest NE region. Originality/value: This study provides a comprehensive analysis of how rural credit has impacted small-farm agricultural production, using large and representative data – the whole population of Brazilian family farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to its low global share of direct energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (1–2%), the implications of technological transitions in the agricultural and forestry sector on the energy system have been overlooked. This paper introduces the Agriculture and Land Use Sector module part of the ModUlar energy System Environment (MUSE), a novel energy system simulation model. The study presents a generalisable method that enables energy modellers to characterise agricultural technologies within an energy system modelling framework. Different mechanisation processes were characterised to simulate intensification/extensification transitions in the sector and its wider implications in the energy and land use system aiming at providing reliable non-energy outputs similarly to those found in dedicated land use models. Additionally, a forest growth model has been integrated to explore the role of reforestation alongside decarbonisation measures in the energy system in achieving carbon mitigation pathways. To illustrate the model's capabilities, Brazil is used as case study. Outputs suggest that by 2030 under a 2 °C mitigation scenario, most of Brazil agricultural production would move from 'transitional' to 'modern' practices, improving productivity and reducing deforestation rates, at the expense of higher energy and fertiliser demand. By mid-century Brazil has the potential to liberate around 24.4 Mha of agricultural land, where large-scale reforestation could have the capacity to sequester around 5.6 GtCO 2 , alleviating mitigation efforts in the energy system, especially reducing carbon capture and storage technology investments in the industry and power sector. • A novel energy-oriented agriculture and land use systems model has been developed. • Mechanisation levels are characterised using cluster analysis and linear optimisation. • Role of reforestation alongside measures in the energy sector in Brazil are studied. • By 2050, modern mechanisation could represent 54–63% of agricultural production. • Brazil has the potential to sequester around 5.6 GtCO 2 through reforestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last several decades, Brazil has become both the world's leading soy producer and the world's leading consumer of hazardous pesticides. Despite identified links between pesticide exposure and carcinogenesis, there has been little populationlevel research on the effects of pesticide intensification on broader human health in Brazil. We estimate the relationship between expanded soy production--and related community exposure to pesticides--on childhood cancer incidence using 15 y of data on disease mortality. We find a statistically significant increase in pediatric leukemia following expanded local soy production, but timely access to treatment mitigates this relationship. We show that pesticide exposure likely occurs via water supply penetration. Our findings represent only the tip of the iceberg for substantial health externalities of high-input crop production and land use change. Our results are of particular interest in developing contexts with demand for intensified food production systems and underscore the need for stronger regulation of pesticides and increased public health attention to exposure in the broader community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The largest size class produced with the highest TFP levels in 1985 and 2006. • By 2006, a U-shaped total factor productivity distribution over farm sizes emerged. • The U-shape was due to the smallest and largest sizes having the fastest TFP growth. • Education and annual-crop specialization were associated with higher TFP growth. The long-standing debate on the relationship between farm size and productivity has been generally limited by the range of farm sizes evaluated and the definition of productivity. In this paper we use data from three Brazilian agricultural censuses to address these issues. In particular, we introduce a wider distribution of farm sizes than presently available from the literature and we employ total factor productivity (TFP) as our performance measure. In doing so, we test which farm size class had the highest TFP levels in 1985 and 2006, how factor productivity growth varied within and across farm size classes between those years, and which policy or factor had the greatest productivity enhancing effect. When examining TFP growth, we move beyond the common decomposition into technical and efficiency changes by identifying the complete distribution of farm productivity performances. We find that by 2006 a U-shaped distribution of productivity over farm sizes had emerged. Considerable 1985–2006 TFP growth differences are prevalent; positive rates for the majority accompany stagnant or negative rates for some. Public education investments were associated with faster productivity growth regardless of farm size, while technical assistance's positive effect and credit's negative effect were associated with larger farm sizes. The role of specialization varied by size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazilian agricultural productive process has increasingly become more dependent of agrotoxic use. In 2009, Brazil reached the spot of world's largest consumer of such products. The present research intends to investigate the perception of students from senior year of a rural high school placed on the Lerrovile district, city of Londrina-PR, upon the use of agrotoxic on food production and social-environmental issues caused due to it, as well as alternatives on the production of healthier food. On the execution of this paper, two work fronts were taken: on office and on field. Preliminarily, bibliographic survey, documental and electronic research, reading and selection of literature that characterize technified agriculture on one side, and agrotoxic consumption, on the other; organizing a set of questions and applying previously planned and scheduled interviews for data gathering through the development of a focal group. Therefore, although this research has approached economic and politic aspects intrinsic to agriculture modernization, it also addressed the recognition and the appreciation of cultural processes present on rural agricultural production experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the established literature on agricultural cooperatives describes their myriad contributions to farmers' economic performance. In Brazil, one of the world's leading agricultural exporters, there were more than 1500 agricultural cooperatives with 1 million members in 2020, and in 2017, 11% of all Brazilian farms were associated with one of these cooperatives. In this paper, we estimate the factors associated with the municipality share of cooperative membership (MSCM) and how municipality-level production value changes with MSCM. Our analysis is at the municipality level using aggregate data from the 2017 Agricultural Census. We find that in Brazil, higher education and smaller property sizes are associated with membership in agricultural cooperatives. To estimate how MSCM is associated with farm profits, we use a generalized propensity score and find that an increase in MSCM increases net municipal farm income, driven mostly by an increase in the value of agricultural production compared to a smaller increase in the cost of production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family farming plays important roles in agricultural production and the world’s food security. This paper provides an econometric analysis of income, productivity and diversification of Brazilian smallholders. Using the most updated data from the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA) enables a more precise analysis than traditional agri-census data. The database contains approximately 4.7 million family farmers from all regions of the country. We used linear and tobit regression to untangle useful information behind these large datasets. The results demonstrated that the smallholders that are part of an agricultural cooperative or a member of a farmer’s association positively affect income, productivity and diversification. The age of household heads is shown to have a non-linear relationship in the three cases, while the household head being female presented a negative effect in all regressions. Although recent technical assistance showed negative impacts on income and productivity, farmer’s assistance positively affected the likelihood of a smallholder diversifying their production and, therefore, becoming less subject to price imbalances. The results support current views in the field of smallholder farming while presenting marked regional differences of a continental country, enabling policy makers to make better, more informed decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale land governance and environmental monitoring are huge challenges for tropical countries with significant forest cover. In this discussion paper, we analyzed the conditions and achievements of the implementation of the Brazilian Rural Environmental Registry (CAR). CAR was an important breakthrough of the Native Vegetation Protection Law for environmental monitoring in Brazil. CAR is the mandatory and self-declaratory registry for rural properties. Owners must provide georeferenced delimitation of their property’s boundaries and legally protected areas, such as Areas of Permanent Preservation and Legal Reserves. We used the example of the State of Mato Grosso (transition between the two largest biomes in Brazil – Amazon and Cerrado) to discuss how CAR and its national information system (called SICAR) provide important inputs for land-use, environmental, economic, territorial, and food security policies. Future policies should include increasing investments and coordination between different sectors to integrate CAR and conservation efforts with agricultural production and sustainable management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we evaluated the performance of the model AquaCrop for crop yield forecasting in the Brazilian semiarid (BSA) using meteorological observation and Eta model seasonal climate forecasts as input data. The study area is characterized by low rainfall that is poorly distributed throughout the rainy season; thus, the region's agricultural productivity is vulnerable to climate conditions. AquaCrop was first calibrated using field experiments and subsequently applied to simulate an operational crop yield forecast system for maize under rainfed conditions. Simulations were performed with daily data for 37 growing seasons for the period 2001–2010. The seasonal climate forecast was used in combination with observed meteorological data to anticipate the crop forecast. Soil characteristics were derived from pedotransfer functions (PTFs). We were able to demonstrate the ability of the seasonal crop yield forecast system to provide timely and accurate information about maize yield at least 30 days in advance of the harvest. The development of improved crop yield forecasting system is crucial for implementing drought-preparedness measures in the BSA region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we seek to present the synthesis of the global ethanol market in the United States (US) and Brazil by using caloric equivalence to empirically characterize the elasticity of supply and demand. We also seek to evaluate the relationship between world ethanol production and prices of agricultural commodities (wheat, rice, corn, soybeans and sugar) from 1981 to 2016 using climate-induced yield shocks as instrumental variables. The main results for the world market indicate that the production and demand for ethanol respond elastically to changes in commodity prices. The world ethanol production has no significant relationship with food prices. However, evaluation of the ethanol market and its interaction with the agricultural commodities market confirms the hypothesis that Brazilian ethanol is weakly related to the price of food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regenerative agricultural practices are a suitable path to feed the global population. Integrated Crop–livestock systems (ICLSs) are key approaches once the area provides animal and crop production resources. In Brazil, the expectation is to increase the area of ICLS fields by 5 million hectares in the next five years. However, few methods have been tested regarding spatial and temporal scales to map and monitor ICLS fields, and none of these methods use SAR data. Therefore, in this work, we explored the potential of three machine and deep learning algorithms (random forest, long short-term memory, and transformer) to perform early-season (with three-time windows) mapping of ICLS fields. To explore the scalability of the proposed methods, we tested them in two regions with different latitudes, cloud cover rates, field sizes, landscapes, and crop types. Finally, the potential of SAR (Sentinel-1) and optical (Sentinel-2) data was tested. As a result, we found that all proposed algorithms and sensors could correctly map both study sites. For Study Site 1(SS1), we obtained an overall accuracy of 98% using the random forest classifier. For Study Site 2, we obtained an overall accuracy of 99% using the long short-term memory net and the random forest. Further, the early-season experiments were successful for both study sites (with an accuracy higher than 90% for all time windows), and no significant difference in accuracy was found among them. Thus, this study found that it is possible to map ICLSs in the early-season and in different latitudes by using diverse algorithms and sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil is an important player when it comes to biofuel and agricultural production. The knowledge of the price relationship between these markets has increasing importance. This paper adopts several tools, namely the Bai–Perron test of breakpoints, the Johansen cointegration test and the vector error correction model exploited by the orthogonal impulse response and the forecast error variance decomposition, for investigating the price transmission among the ethanol and the main Brazil's agricultural commodities (sugar, cotton, arabica coffee, robusta coffee, live cattle, corn and soybean). The data series cover the period from January 2011 up to December 2018. The results suggest a stronger price transmission from the ethanol commodity to the agricultural commodities, rather than the opposite situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, the Amazon region has been hit by some of the worst floods in history. The floods killed hundreds of people and damaged thousands of homes. However, in southeast Brazil, specifically in the states of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Gerais, a highly significant decreasing rainfall trend has been discovered. The Sao Paulo State drought has had a significant impact on national electrical energy and agricultural productivity. In the last 100 years and 90 years, respectively, 2021 was a record flood in the Amazon region and a record drought in southeast Brazil. According to this study, recent floods in the Amazon and droughts in southeast Brazil, particularly extreme events in 2021, are strongly linked to the changing Hadley cell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Brasileira de Agricultura Irrigada - RBAI is the property of Revista Brasileira de Agricultura Irrigada - RBAI and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)