An interdisciplinary model of soybean yield in the Amazon Basin: The climatic, edaphic, and economic determinants

Maria del Carmen Vera-Diaz, Robert Kaufmann, Daniel C. Nepstad and Peter Schlesinger

Ecological Economics, 2008, vol. 65, issue 2, 420-431

Abstract: Soybean production is one of the main economic forces driving the expansion of the agricultural frontier in the Brazilian Amazon. To assess the potential for expansion we estimate a model of soybean yield that integrates the major climatic, edaphic, and economic determinants in the Amazon Basin. Yield is modeled as a function of yield as simulated by a crop physiology model that captures the effects of climate and physical attributes on the development of soybean plant; fertilizer applications; and economic/spatial parameters such as credit, transports costs and latitude. Current values of these determinants indicate that roughly 20% of Amazon Region or ~Â 1,000,000Â km2 (excluding protected areas) can generate yields greater than 2000Â kg/ha. Soybean production may be possible over a wider area of Amazon, but realizing this potential requires improvements in economic determinants such as the transportation infrastructure.

Date: 2008
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