TY - JOUR
T1 - Near doubling of Brazil’s intensive row crop area since 2000
AU - Zalles, Viviana
AU - Hansen, Matthew C.
AU - Potapov, Peter V.
AU - Stehman, Stephen V.
AU - Tyukavina, Alexandra
AU - Pickens, Amy
AU - Song, Xiao Peng
AU - Adusei, Bernard
AU - Okpa, Chima
AU - Aguilar, Ricardo
AU - John, Nicholas
AU - Chavez, Selena
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 National Academy of Sciences. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2019/1/8
Y1 - 2019/1/8
N2 - Brazil has become a global leader in the production of commodity row crops such as soybean, sugarcane, cotton, and corn. Here, we report an increase in Brazilian cropland extent from 26.0 Mha in 2000 to 46.1 Mha in 2014. The states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, Bahia (collectively MATOPIBA), Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Pará all more than doubled in cropland extent. The states of Goiás, Minas Gerais, and São Paulo each experienced >50% increases. The vast majority of expansion, 79%, occurred on repurposed pasture lands, and 20% was from the conversion of natural vegetation. Area of converted Cerrado savannas was nearly 2.5 times that of Amazon forests, and accounted for more than half of new cropland in MATOPIBA. Spatiotemporal dynamics of cropland expansion reflect market conditions, land use policies, and other factors. Continued extensification of cropland across Brazil is possible and may be likely under current conditions, with attendant benefits for and challenges to development.
AB - Brazil has become a global leader in the production of commodity row crops such as soybean, sugarcane, cotton, and corn. Here, we report an increase in Brazilian cropland extent from 26.0 Mha in 2000 to 46.1 Mha in 2014. The states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, Bahia (collectively MATOPIBA), Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Pará all more than doubled in cropland extent. The states of Goiás, Minas Gerais, and São Paulo each experienced >50% increases. The vast majority of expansion, 79%, occurred on repurposed pasture lands, and 20% was from the conversion of natural vegetation. Area of converted Cerrado savannas was nearly 2.5 times that of Amazon forests, and accounted for more than half of new cropland in MATOPIBA. Spatiotemporal dynamics of cropland expansion reflect market conditions, land use policies, and other factors. Continued extensification of cropland across Brazil is possible and may be likely under current conditions, with attendant benefits for and challenges to development.
KW - Cropland expansion | land cover change | remote sensing | Brazil | area estimation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85059609894&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1810301115
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1810301115
M3 - Article
C2 - 30559198
AN - SCOPUS:85059609894
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 116
SP - 428
EP - 435
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 2
ER -