SUGAR CANE EXPANSION: DOES IT CONTRIBUTE TO AMAZON DEFORESTATION?

Eduardo Rodrigues de Castro, Erly Cardoso Teixeira and Constanza Valdes

No 131703, 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil from International Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: The aim of this study is to investigate the direct and indirect impacts of sugarcane expansion on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon from 2001 to 2008. The analysis is based on the multi-output production theory where the annual agricultural acreage represents the Production Possibility Frontier. It assumes that agricultural area is limited and any agricultural expansion occurs over traditional agricultural areas displacing some crops and pushing them to the agricultural frontier, where forests will be cleared. The econometric analysis was carried out using a panel data model where the counties are the cross section unity. The output supply for São Paulo state and the agricultural frontier states (Mato Grosso, Rondônia, Maranhão and Tocantins) in the Center-West region are estimated separately, considering the acreage as proxy of the output and the crop prices of sugarcane, soybean, corn, beans, cotton and the total annual acreage as the independent variables. The impact of crop prices and the annual agricultural crop expansion over the deforestation acreage are also estimated. Our best estimates reveal that it is not possible to establish a direct connection between sugarcane area expansion and Amazon deforestation, and while the indirect effects are very small, sugarcane also expanded over pastures and perennial crops, leading to an overall increase in annual crop area.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Crop Production/Industries; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26
Date: 2012-08-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/131703/files/deCastroEtAl.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:iaae12:131703

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.131703

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil from International Association of Agricultural Economists Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search (aesearch@umn.edu).