MapBiomas' unprecedented survey reveals the dynamics of agricultural expansion in Brazil over the last 39 years.
December 6, 2024
Three out of every four agricultural land in Brazil is occupied by pasture ( 164 millon hectares), soybean, (approximately 40 million hectares) or sugar cane (around 9 million hectares). These are some of the findings of the most recent mapping of agriculture and pasture conducted by the MapBiomas network of institutions. The data was presented today, (12/06), at an event at the Ministry of Agriculture and Pasture in Brasilia.
Based on the analysis of satellite images covering the period between 1985 and 2023, the data show that the area occupied by temporary crops such as soybean, sugar cane, rice and cotton, among others, increased 3.3 times, from 18 million hectares to 60 million hectares. In the case of soy, the growth was even more significant: the crop went from 4.4 million hectares mapped in 1985 to around 40 million hectares mapped in 2023 - an area equivalent to the size of Paraguay. The mapped area of perennial crops, such as coffee, citrus and oil palm, among others, grew 2.9 times in the same period: from 727,000 hectares in 1985 to 2.3 million hectares in 2023. The most common perennial crop is coffee, with 1.26 million hectares in 2023.
Check out the highlights on pasture land cover and use mapping
Check out the highlights on agriculture and irrigation land cover and use mapping
Considering the sum of the areas of agriculture, pasture and mosaic of uses, there has been expansion in all Brazilian biomes over the last 39 years since 1985, but at different rates: +417% in the Amazon( where it occupies 66 million hectares in 2023); +256% in the Pantanal (2.5 million hectares in 2023); +68% in the Cerrado (90 million hectares in 2023); + 62% in the Pampa (8 million hectares in 2023); and + 3% in the Atlantic Forest (67 million hectares in 2023). Proportionally, in 2023, the biome with the largest agricultural area is the Pampa, with 5.6 million hectares, representing 29% of the biome's area. However, in absolute areas, the leaders are the Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest, with 26 million hectares and 20 million hectares.
Soy expansion and other temporary crops in Brazil
The approximately 40 million hectares of mapped soybean area in Brazil represent 14% of the entire agricultural area in the country. In 2023, almost half of this area cultivated with soy was in Cerrado (19.3 million hectares), followed by a quarter in the Atlantic Forest (10.3 million hectares) and then the Amazon (5.9 milllion hectares). However, the Pampa biome is the one with the largest proportional area.
From 1985 to 2008, soy expanded by 18 million hectares, 30% of which came from native vegetation (5.7 million hectares), 26% from conversion from pasture to soy (5 million hectares) and 44% from other previously anthropized areas ( 8 million hectares). When we look at the time frame from 2009 to 2023, with an expansion of 17 million hectares, the scenario changes, with 15% of soybean areas coming from native vegetations (2.8 million hectares), 36% coming from pasture conversion and 49% from previously anthropized areas. The regions that saw the largest conversion to soy after 2008 were Matopiba (2.8 million hectares) and Pampa (1.2 million hectares). New agricultural frontiers are also emerging, with the expansion of soy in the Amacro region (72,000 hectares mapped in 2023) and Roraima (with 76,000 hectares mapped in 2023).
Intensification and irrigation of temporary agriculture
In the case of temporary crops, the mapping identified that around 70% of the areas cultivated with first-crop soybeans have had more than one cycle per year fo the last seven years. The Atlantic Forest has a higher proportion of temporary crops with two or more cycles per crop year (October to September). In the Pampa, 86% of the areas cutivated with rice, or 1 million hectares, have only one cycle due to the rotation system with fallow and natural fields with cattle, tradiotionally used in the region.
Most of Brazil's temporary crop areas have more than one cycle, especially in the Atlantic Forest. Areas with up to one cycle per crop year are generally related to sugar cane, whose cycle exceeds one year, and to irrigated rice cultivation in Rio Grande do Sul, due to rotation and fallow. Even areas with recent agricultural expansion, such as the Amazon and Cerrado, tend to have more than one crop per year. In these regons in particular, ongoing climate change with rising temperatures and reduced rainfall, could have a considerable impact on production in the near future, even making a second cycle unfeasible", comments Professor Eliseu Weber, one of the coordinatiors of the Agriculture theme in MapBiomas.
The advance of temporary crops has contributed to the expansion of irrigation in Brazil. In all, 3 million hectares of irrigated agriculture have been mapped in Brazil, with almost two thirds (61%) of what has been mapped using center pivot and one third (33%) flood (basically lowland rice-growing areas). Other irrigation systems were not mapped. Almost all (97%) of the irrigated areas mapped with center pivot are temporary crops. The total area mapped with irrigated agriculture is about half of the irrigated area reported by the National Water Agency (ANA), due to the difficulty of detection and mapping by satellite images, which will be improved in the next collections.
Pasture land conversion in Brazil
In total, approximately 164 million hectares of pastureland have been mapped, or 60% of the agricultural area. This is an increase of 79% on the 92 million hectares occupied in 1985. Pasture is currently the main anthropogenic use of Brazilian' territory. More than a third (36%, or 59 million hectares) of Brazil's pastures are in the Amazon, where they cover 14% of the biome's total area. Around a third (31%, or 51 million hectares) are in Cerrado, where pastures oocupy 26% of the biome. Together, the Amazon and Cerrado account for two thirds (67%) of Brazil's pastures.
The biomes with the largest proportional areas of pasture are the Caatinga, Cerrado and Atlantic Forest, with 23 million hectares (27% of the biome), 51 million hectares (26% of the biome) and 29 million hectares (26% of the biome), respectively. In the case of Atlantic Forest, 84% of the current pasture areas were cleared more than 30 years ago. In the case of Cerrado, 72% current pasture areas were cleared more than 20 years ago.
Researchers observed an upward trend in the conversion of pasture areas to other uses in all Brazilian biomes. In the Amazon, around 40% of pasture conversion has taken place in the last 10 years. In Cerrado, this percentage is 42%. In terms of area, Cerrado leads the way in the extent of pastures converted since the beginning of the historical series in 1985: almost 35 million hectares. In the Atlantic Forest, there have been just over 25 million hectares.
Researchers also evaluatd the transitions in pasture cover and vigor between 2000 and 2023. The results show thal 80.5% of the pastures formed between 2000 and 2023 (47.5 million hectares) come from Forests (Forest Formation, Savannah, etc). More than half of this total (51%) gave rise to pastures of medium vigor (17.4 million hectares) or low vigor (6.9 million hectares). Another 23.2 million hectares gave rise to high vigor pastures.
When looking at the transition between pastures, the scenario is more encouraging: there was a net gain of 10.5% in the vigor of Brazilian pastures between 2000 and 2023, as there was an improvement in the vigor of 25%, or 43.2 million hectares, of pastures with low and medium vigor. In 14.5%, or 15.3 million hectares, there was a worsening in the condition of vigor in areas that previously had high and medium vigor.
By evaluating the transition from pastures to other uses, it can be seen that 87.1% of the total pastures that were converted to agriculture between 2000 and 2023 had a condition of medium to low vigor. Around 42% of the pasture area abandoned and/or regenerated into native vegetation between 2000 and 2023 came from pastures with a high level of vigor.
In 2022, cultivated pastures in Brazil produced around 3.18 gigatonnes of biomass, or an average of 19.5 tons per hectare, with the highest and lowest values associated with pastures in the Amazon (approximately 25 tons per hectare) and Caatinga (around 11 tons per hectare), respectively. "Considering the size of the Brazilian herd in 2022 found in cultivated pasture areas (approximately 209 million animal units - AU, where 1 AU = 450kg) and the average consumption of forage per AU, there is room for optimism about the potential for sustainable intensification of Brazilian livestock farming, at the same time as freeing up the pasture areas for other uses", explains Professor Laerte Ferreira, coordinator of MapBiomas pasture team.
A major new feature of MapBiomas Collection 9 in relation to mapping and monitoring Brazilian pastures is the annual estimate of forage production and stocks. "This data is of fundamental importance for assessing the support capacity of our pastures, with a view to adopting more efficient and sustainable management practices within the scope of livestock farming in Brazil", says Laerte Ferreira.
Maps and charts on agriculture and irrigation can be downloaded here.
Maps and charts on pasture can be downloaded here.
Maps and charts on soil can be downloaded here.