Author(s): LUIZ, A. J. B.; SANCHES, I. D.; NEVES, M. C.

Summary: In this work, we used data on area harvested and quantity produced from the three major Brazilian crops in the area: soybean, sugarcane and corn, provided by the IBGE Municipal Agricultural Research (PAM), for the period between 1990 and 2014, to evaluate the dynamics of agriculture in Brazil. The analysis focused on the increase in time and the change in the space occupied by the production. We used images of the sensors OLI and TM on board the Landsat-8 and Landsat-5 satellites, respectively, to exemplify changes in land use and land cover in selected areas. In 25 years, the combination of increased Brazilian agricultural productivity with the large-scale adoption of the safrinha or second crop season (intensification of agriculture) resulted in a 197% increase in the production of these crops, without expanding the cultivated area in the same proportion of production. There was also a significant change in production sites. We have confirmed that the changes recorded by the official data were in accordance with the ones that are showed by the remote sensing images. Municipalities responding for 25% national production dramatically changed in number and in its spatial distribution in this short period, moving the grain pole from South and Southeastern region to Central-West region of Brazil.

Publication year: 2017

Types of publication: Paper in annals and proceedings

Unit: Embrapa Environment

Keywords: Agricultura, Agricultural dynamics, Agriculture, LUC, Land use, Sensoriamento remoto, Uso da terra, remote sensing