Agricultural Transformations in the Southern Cone of Latin America: Agricultural Intensification and Decrease of the Aboveground Net Primary Production, Uruguay’s Case

Ines Gazzano (), Marcel Achkar and Ismael Díaz
Additional contact information
Marcel Achkar: Laboratorio de Desarrollo Sustentable y Gestión Ambiental del Territorio. Instituto de Ecología y Ciencias Ambientales. Facultad de Ciencias. Universidad de la República, Montevideo 11200, Uruguay
Ismael Díaz: Laboratorio de Desarrollo Sustentable y Gestión Ambiental del Territorio. Instituto de Ecología y Ciencias Ambientales. Facultad de Ciencias. Universidad de la República, Montevideo 11200, Uruguay

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 24, 1-16

Abstract: The agri-exporting enclaves of the current corporate food regime intensively exploit natural assets in global strategies that govern the local processes. Their multidimensional impacts contribute to the environmental and civilizational crisis. Linked to the agrarian metabolism in its appropriation phase, land use has impacts on local systems. To understand this process, it is necessary to identify the systemic and spatial expression of environmental transformation. The objective of this work was to analyze the dynamic adjustment of aboveground net primary production (ANPP) to agricultural intensification between the years 2000 and 2017, using a land use intensity index and the soils’ productive potential. Agricultural expansion and consolidation are observed, as well as the significant intensification throughout the period in 65% of the country’s area—with differences between regions—associated with soil types. ANPP is higher in areas of low land use intensity and lower in high intensity areas, varying from high to low in soils with low to high productive potential, respectively, and growing throughout the period—depending on the area, with less growth in areas of greater intensity. The appropriation of edaphic wealth puts the systemic functionality at risk and challenges these transforming dynamics, with a strong impact on southern systems.

Keywords: agricultural intensification; Pampa biome; agroecology; ANPP; land use change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/24/7011/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/24/7011/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:24:p:7011-:d:295591

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().