Abstract
The growing global demand for soybean production combined with its increased market value could result in a new supercycle for this commodity. For Brazilian agribusiness, there has been an opportunity to increase exports, particularly in soybean production, in recent years, and therefore, soybean production has been expanding more and more across the states of the Brazilian Amazon. Soybean is the most important grain crop among temporary crops in the Brazilian Amazon; in 2019, it reached a value of USD 21.78 billion, using a planted area of 124,947 km2 (about 55% of the planted area). At the same time, overall deforestation increased significantly in recent years: 10,897 km2 in 2019 and 9811 km² in 2020. To study these changes, economic, social, and environmental sustainability indicators were identified and analyzed using a regression model, and changes in the main economic and socio-environmental indicators were observed that identified a strong positive correlation between agricultural GHG emissions and soybean-planted area. The impact on the local population was also analyzed between the years 2000 and 2019, and there was a mismatch between the population growth rate and the growth rate of the harvested area, which resulted in the displacement of the populations to the cities, and identified a strong positive correlation between the unemployment rate for young people and the soybean-planted area. In this context, this paper presents an analysis of the correlation between soy expansion and the main economic indicators and socioenvironmental impacts in the Brazilian Amazon.
Highlights
The total emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) reached 1.14 gigatons of CO2eq in the Brazilian Amazon in 2019, and of these, 76% were related to land-use change
The analysis of sectorial indicators showed a strong correlation between soybean production and the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Legal Amazon, indicating the importance of this commodity in the region’s economy
The analysis of the sustainability indicators showed that the negative impacts of the expansion of soybean cultivation in the Amazon were related to GHG emissions and unemployment among young adults
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Soybeans stood out, which has continued to grow by 25.3% since June and should see the and investment on export the commodities would high-level compromise diversified year-end with newcentralization production and records [7].sector. The export’s dependence industry formation with possibilities for generating a profit and capital accumulation for and investment centralization on the commodities sector would compromise diversified economies with this production specialization, especially in stagnation periods when prices industry formation with possibilities for generating a profit and capital accumulation for fall [5]. We analyzed indicate that we are in a new commodities supercycle Within this context, we analyzed the economic, social, and environmental characteristics of the Brazilian Amazon to identhe social, and environmental characteristics of the The. Amazon to identify tifyeconomic, the impact of increased soy production in this region. Brazilian Amazon indicators related to economic, environmental, and social impacts
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