Resource information
Using census data from the Censo
Agropecuario 1995-96, the authors map indicators of current
land use, and agricultural productivity across Brazil's
Legal Amazon, These data permit geographical resolution
about ten times finer than afforded by "municipio"
data, used in previous studies. The authors focus on the
extent, and productivity of pasture, the dominant land use
in Amazonia today. Simple tabulations suggest that most
agricultural land in Amazonia yields little private economic
value. Nearly ninety percent of agricultural land is either
devoted to pasture, or has been out of use for more than
four years. About forty percent of the currently used
pastureland, has a stocking ratio of less that 0.5 cattle
per hectare. Tabulations also show a skewed distribution of
land ownership: almost half of Amazonian farmland is located
in the one percent of properties that contain more than two
thousand hectares. Multivariate analyses relate forest
conversion, and pasture productivity to precipitation, soil
quality, infrastructure, and market access, proximity to
past conversion, and protection status. The authors find
precipitation to have a strong deterrent effect on
agriculture. The probability that land is currently claimed,
or used for agriculture, or intensively stocked with cattle,
declines substantially with increasing precipitation levels,
holding other factors (such as road access) constant.
Proxies for land abandonment are also higher in high
rainfall areas. Together these findings suggest that the
wetter Western Amazon is inhospitable to exploitation for
pasture, using current technologies. On the other hand, land
conversion, and stocking rates are positively correlated
with proximity to past clearing. This suggests that in the
areas of active deforestation in eastern Amazonia, the
frontier is not :hollow:, and land use intensifies over
time. But this area remains a mosaic of lands with higher,
and lower potential agricultural value.
