Study points the way to expansion and intensification of Brazilian agriculture

Brazilian agricultural production as a whole has increased in recent decades. Agriculture, however, has shown greater productivity and has been more efficient in terms of land use and greenhouse gas emissions per ton of protein produced than livestock farming. This difference in the productivity and efficiency of the agricultural and livestock sectors represents a potential for improvements in the use of land and other resources used for food production in the country today.

The finding comes from a study carried out by researchers from the Geoprocessing Laboratory (Geolab) at the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture at the University of São Paulo (Esalq-USP) in collaboration with colleagues from the Institute of Forestry and Agricultural Management and Certification (Imaflora) and Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.

The study is part of the Atlas da Agropecuária Brasileira project, supported by FAPESP. The results were published in the journal Elementa – Science of the Anthropocene, published by the University of California, in the United States.

“We identified that agriculture has been much more efficient both in protein production per hectare and in greenhouse gas emissions than livestock farming in recent decades”, said Luís Fernando Guedes Pinto, researcher at Imaflora and one of the authors of the study, to Agência FAPESP.

The researchers evaluated the growth in production, productivity and efficiency of Brazilian agricultural and livestock crops in recent decades in order to estimate the impacts of the expansion and intensification of these activities on the goals of zero deforestation and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by the agricultural sector.

To do this, they used statistical methods to convert Brazilian agricultural and livestock harvests from 1975 to 2006 into protein and energy. The data was related to estimates of direct greenhouse gas emissions.

Data analysis showed that there was an increase in the area planted with agricultural crops in all regions of Brazil, while the pasture area decreased in the South and Southeast and increased in the North region. The production of both activities increased in the same period in all regions, with emphasis on the Central-West. However, there is a large difference in production and productivity growth rates between crops and pastures.

In 2006, for example, the production of vegetable protein was 20 times greater than that of bovine protein, even though agriculture occupies an area 2,6 times smaller than pastures – 160 million hectares compared to 61 million hectares of crops. .

Agricultural productivity in the same year was also 25 times greater than livestock. While agriculture produced 0,25 tons of vegetable protein per hectare and 2 tons of greenhouse gases (GHG) per ton of protein, livestock production produced 0,01 tons of animal protein per hectare and 283 tons of GHGs per ton of protein. .

“The 2006 agricultural harvest was enough to meet the protein needs of 1,3 billion people, while the livestock harvest would guarantee the needs of 66 million people,” said Guedes.

The study also pointed out that, although the poultry and pork production system is more efficient than livestock production for protein production, it is six times less efficient than vegetable protein as a primary food source.

“Even so, the analyzes indicated that between 1975 and 2006 the proportion of vegetable production destined for feed for raising chickens and pigs increased, while the proportion destined directly for human consumption decreased,” said Guedes.

Path to expansion

In the researchers' assessment, the study findings suggest that achieving zero deforestation, efficient land use and more sustainable food systems in Brazil will require a combination of intensification of pasture and livestock systems, optimization of animal feeding systems, increased participation consumption of crops as a source of protein and alignment of policies that affect forestry and agriculture.

Since achieving these goals will be a major challenge, they suggest in the study a path for the expansion and intensification of agriculture aiming at zero deforestation and sustainable land use and food production systems.

Some of the suggestions for this path are to prioritize plant production as the main source of human food; prioritize poultry and pork meat as the main source of animal protein; maintain livestock production in the long term on land not suitable for vegetable production; and allow the intensification of livestock farming in pasture systems on non-arable marginal lands or on those suitable for farming, but not yet necessary for the production of agricultural crops.

“The way forward would be to first prioritize increasing the area occupied by agricultural crops and not pastures. If agriculture grew on pasture areas there would be no deforestation,” Guedes told Agência FAPESP.

“This change could be achieved by a robust strategy that combines penalties and incentives and prevents the risks of a rebound effect for agricultural intensification,” he said.

The researcher considers that this roadmap only considers the productivity and efficiency of land use and food production, without taking into account other issues determining the expansion and intensification of agriculture such as infrastructure, eating habits and food consumption demands.

Furthermore, analyzes from 1975 to 2006 did not capture important recent policies and changes that have occurred in the sector's governance and that have aimed to reduce deforestation and low-carbon agriculture.

“The new agricultural census is essential for us to have data that allows us to analyze the current situation and project scenarios,” said Guedes.

The study Asymmetries of cattle and crop productivity and efficiency during Brazil's agricultural expansion from 1975 to 2006 (doi: 10.1525/elementa.187), by Gerd Sparovek and others, can be read in the journal Elementa – Science of the Anthropocene at www. elementascience.org/articles/10.1525/elementa.187/.