 Farm size and Land use efficiency in the Brazilian AmazonMarcelo Dias Paes Ferreira and José Gustavo Féres Land Use Policy, 2020, vol. 99, issue C Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between farm size and land use efficiency in the Brazilian Amazon. Based on data from the 2006 Brazilian Agricultural Census, we estimated a stochastic production frontier model which allowed us to quantify the excessive use of agricultural land. Our results suggest that there is plenty of room for land use intensification, which would allow agricultural expansion without further deforestation pressures. We also observed a “U-shaped” relationship between farm size and land use efficiency. However, the turning point of the relationship is far above the typical size of agricultural establishments in the Brazilian Amazon as land use efficiency reached its minimum level at approximately 8,000 ha. For practical purposes, our estimates are in line with previous results that found a negative relationship between farm size and land use efficiency. This means that the current process of land concentration observed in the region would result in increased land use inefficiency. Keywords: SFA; Productivity analysis; Land concentration (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:99:y:2020:i:c:s0264837719311123 DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104901 Access Statistics for this article Land Use Policy is currently edited by Jaap Zevenbergen More articles in Land Use Policy from Elsevier |
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