Abstract
Low productivity cattle ranching, with its linkages to rural poverty, deforestation and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, remains one of the largest sustainability challenges in Brazil and has impacts worldwide. There is a nearly universal call to intensify extensive beef cattle production systems to spare land for crop production and nature and to meet Brazil’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution to reducing global climate change. However, different interventions aimed at the intensification of livestock systems in Brazil may involve substantial social and environmental tradeoffs. Here we examine these tradeoffs using a whole-farm model calibrated for the Brazilian agricultural frontier state of Mato Grosso, one of the largest soybean and beef cattle production regions in the world. Specifically, we compare the costs and benefits of a typical extensive, continuously grazed cattle system relative to a specialized soybean production system and two improved cattle management strategies (rotational grazing and integrated soybean-cattle) under different climate scenarios. We found clear tradeoffs in GHG and nitrogen emissions, climate resilience, and water and energy use across these systems. Relative to continuously grazed or rotationally grazed cattle systems, the integreated soybean-cattle system showed higher food production and lower GHG emissions per unit of human digestible protein, as well as increased resilience under climate change (both in terms of productivity and financial returns). All systems suffered productivity and profitability losses under severe climate change, highlighting the need for climate smart agricultural development strategies in the region. By underscoring the economic feasibility of improving the performance of cattle systems, and by quantifying the tradeoffs of each option, our results are useful for directing agricultural and climate policy.
Highlights
What happens in the Brazilian agricultural frontier, in the transition between the Amazon and the Cerrado biomes, is globally relevant
Despite recent significant growth in the productivity of livestock production systems in Brazil, the greatest environmental challenge in the Amazon and Cerrado is the continued prevalence of low productivity cattle ranching, linked to high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, land cover change, land abandonment, and low farm incomes [4–6]
The higher economic return of rotational grazing (ROT) and integrated soybean-cattle system (ICL) versus EXT was largely a function of increased pasture productivity, which led to higher cattle productivity and stocking rates
Summary
What happens in the Brazilian agricultural frontier, in the transition between the Amazon and the Cerrado biomes, is globally relevant This region contains a large share of the world’s tropical forests, water and biodiversity, as well as untapped potential for agricultural production through intensification [1, 2], having direct implications for the world’s climate and food security [3]. The state of Mato Grosso, a hotspot of largescale agricultural expansion in Brazil, is located on the fringe of the largest remaining forest area in the world. It currently ranks first in the production of cotton, maize, soybean, and beef cattle in Brazil, with the largest share of its agricultural area being dedicated to cattle pastures [13]. The reasons for this recent uptick are not yet fully understood, agricultural expansion may have contributed to it as deforestation in Brazil has largely been associated with agricultural expansion [20]
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