MSc thesis research proposal Department of Geography McGill University Identifying the Role of Crop Production in Land Cover Change in Brazil since 1990
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Department of Geography McGill University Identifying the Role of Crop Production in Land Cover Change in Brazil since 1990 Candidate: Elizabeth Barona Supervisor: Prof. Navin Ramankutty (Department of Geography, McGill University, Canada) Committee members: Prof. Oliver Coomes, Prof. Raja Sengupta (Department of Geography, McGill University, Canada) May 1, 2007 Department of Geography McGill University
Identifying the Role of Crop Production in Land Cover Change in Brazil since 1990 1 TABLE OF CONTENT 2 Notation 2 3 Identifying the Role of Crop Production in Land Cover Change in Brazil since 1990 3 Abstract 4 2. BACKGROUND 5 3.STUDY AREA 11 4.RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 14 5.METHODS 16 6.PRELIMINARY RESULTS 19 7.Expected Contribution 22 8.Time Line 23 REFERENCE 24 ANNEX 1 27 NotationAcronyms Agro-maps A Global spatial database of agricultural land-use CAN the Andean Community of Nations CBD Convention on Biological Diversity CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture COP 8 8th Ordinary Meeting of the Conference - CBD EMBRAPA Empresa Brasilera de Pesquisa Agropecuaria FAO Food and Agriculture Organization FAOSTAT Food and Agriculture Statistics FTAA Free Trade Area for the Americas IBGE Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute INPE Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais MERCOSUR Common Market of the South NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement PROALCOOL the Brazilian National Alcohol Program TRMM Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission UNICA São Paulo Sugarcane Agroindustry Union UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Org. USDA U.S. Department of Agriculture WTO World Trade Organization WWF World Wildlife Fund Identifying the Role of Crop Production in Land Cover Change in Brazil since 1990 AbstractCrop production in Brazil has been changing significantly during the last decade. Much of the best farmland is cultivated not only with traditional subsistence crops, but also with products for exports that have been gaining prominence since the 1990s. Global and free market arrangements, international market demands and governmental policies play a key role in the changing agricultural landscapes of the region. The new crop production is oriented toward supplying the world’s demand for Brazilian exports like soybean or sugarcane products. This new demand is causing a substantial land cover change such as increased large-scale mechanized agriculture, deforestation, and the intensification of agricultural land use. An increased demand for export crops in Brazil will either directly or indirectly push the agricultural frontier further into the Amazon, cerrado, or Atlantic forest ecosystems. Brazil currently provides crop production information at the municipality level. This information will be analyzed using geographic information systems (GIS) to examine the changes in spatial distribution of various crops since 1990. Analysis of crop production and trade data will be used to examine whether domestic needs or exports is driving crop production changes. Finally, I will examine the physiographic context under which this cropland expansion is occurring as well as the extent to which different ecosystems are affected. 1. INTRODUCTION Crop production in Latin America has changed enormously during the last decade. Much of the best farmland is cultivated not just with traditional subsistence crops but also with products for exports that are becoming economic priorities for Latin American countries (IICA studies 2003; Pomareda et al 2006). Global and free market arrangements, international market demands, and governmental policies, play a key role in the changing agricultural landscape of the region (Heyck et al 2002; Nepstad et al 2006). Brazil is the largest country of the Latin American republics. Almost half of Brazil’s territory is covered by the basin of the Amazon River which is the world’s largest rainforest ecosystems. The Amazon region plays an important role as a biodiversity repository, and as a climate regulator (WWF 2006). The expansion of cropland into land previously covered by forests has become one of the main causes of deforestation in the Amazon region (Morton et al. 2006). Large-scale mechanized agriculture has led to soil erosion, especially in areas that are not under long-term crop rotations (Fearnside 2001; Dros et al 2003). The Amazon region is becoming more susceptible to effects of intense market pressure to increase agricultural exports (Nepstad et al 2006). The objective of this research project is to examine the role of different crops in the changing land cover of Brazil over the last decades. To address this objective I will answer the following questions: How have the geographic patterns of crops in Brazil changed since 1990? Which crops are driving the change and why? In which physiographic context has this expansion occurred, and which ecosystems are being affected? In the next section, I will present some background literature on crop distribution, cropland expansion, and their main drivers in Brazil. I will then describe how I will accomplish each of my objectives. Finally this proposal will conclude by discussing some preliminary results, and outlining the contributions of this study. 2. BACKGROUND2.1 CROP PRODUCTION IN BRAZILBrazil is one of the largest exporter of agricultural and food products, and also is considered a major supplier to international markets. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the total land area in Brazil is over 850 million hectares and only 60.4 million hectares is devoted to agricultural purposes; therefore the scope for widespread expansion remains. Over the past decade, Brazil’s agricultural industry has benefited from agro-food exports, especially since the market liberalization in early 1990’s, as well as additional government incentives including tax exemptions, financing for agricultural research, marketing and infrastructure improvements, as well as local subsidies to crops for exports (Valdez 2006). According to the IBGE database1, in 2005 the most important annual crops were soybeans, sugarcane and corn, comprising 70% of the total cultivated area; whereas the other 30% was allocated to food crops (IBGE 2005). Since 1990 Brazil has gradually expanded its agricultural frontier. With a more open economy, the Brazilian agro-business sector has applied new technologies to improve farming productivity and become more competitive (IBGE2 2005). According to IBGE, in the last few years, soybean cultivation in Brazil has increased significantly, becoming the biggest crop in planted area since the 1990s. Sugarcane is the second crop in importance in terms of production. Sugarcane production has attracted new investments in the last few years, due to the fact that half of its production is used to supply the increased domestic demand for bio-ethanol and the demand for sugar exports (IBGE 2005). Maize is considered the third most important crop since it is used as a food supply for the poultry and hog cultivation industries. Beans and rice are subsistence crops, and form the most important products for the basic food supply of Brazil (IBGE 2005). Download 350.04 Kb. Share with your friends:
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