Abstract
In the last decades, Brazil has become one of the largest soybean producers and exporters in the world. Although dedicated policies have been implemented since the 1960s, the recent rapid transition towards an agricultural system largely based on soy has had a strong impact on the country’s socio-economic structure—not only in terms of land and labour markets but also on its diverse ecosystems. According to the extant literature, soy has had a beneficial impact on local human development, measured by the human development index (HDI) of the municipalities. However, there is a lack of empirical studies assessing the impact of soy expansion on the single dimensions of the HDI (longevity, education, and income) to disentangle the indirect effects of socio-environmental change while controlling for other local dynamics. To fill this gap, we applied econometric methods to a novel dataset combining municipal-level data on soy production with socio-economic and environmental data for the period 1991–2010. Our findings confirm the positive relation between soy expansion and the HDI at local level, but this relation differs between different HDI dimensions. The marginal benefits of soy expansion are increasing for the income dimension but decreasing for education and longevity. On the other hand, changes in soy productivity (a proxy for agricultural intensification) have a more complex impact on the HDI and its dimensions, but in general its marginal benefits are decreasing over time. Further research could expand the time series once more up-to-date information becomes available.
Highlights
Introduction published maps and institutional affilThe expansion of agricultural commodities production in developing and emerging countries has had a strong impact on their socio-economic and environmental systems [1,2,3]
We provided evidence on the relationship between soy expansion and the socio-environmental variables detected from the Agricultural Census in 2006 and 2017, namely, the use of pesticides, limestone and other correctors of soil pH, and the prevalence of family farms in the municipality
The correlation between all the soyrelated variables and the incidence of family farms was negative, suggesting that soy expansion is associated to the growth of non-family farms
Summary
Introduction published maps and institutional affilThe expansion of agricultural commodities production in developing and emerging countries has had a strong impact on their socio-economic and environmental systems [1,2,3]. Soy production has become the main farming activity in terms of both planted surface and economic value In this context, Brazil has been leading the rush to the exploitation of this activity by implementing dedicated policies already at the beginning of the 1960s [9,10], which have radically changed the agri-food sector in the subsequent decades. Brazil has been leading the rush to the exploitation of this activity by implementing dedicated policies already at the beginning of the 1960s [9,10], which have radically changed the agri-food sector in the subsequent decades These changes have had an influence on the Brazilian economy and on the social and human development of Brazilian communities, as well as on the environment [11]. There is an open discussion on the influence of soy expansion on Brazilian iations
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
