Tropical Rainforest- Agriculture

• Agriculture in Brazil is of vital importance to the economy as the country exports vast quantities of agricultural produce to the USA and Europe
• Agricultural exports have helped Brazil become a world leader in food production
• The drive to increase land under Agricultural production has led to deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest
• "Shifted cultivators" is the term used for people who have moved into Rainforest areas and established small scale farming operations
• Shifted cultivators are landless peasants who follow roads created for mining and logging into the rainforest
• They are referred to as shifted cultivators as most have been forced off their own land to make way for large scale plantation farming
• The unequal distribution of agricultural land is one of the primary forces causing rainforest destruction
• In Brazil, approximately 42% of land is owned by 1% of the population.
• People move into the rainforest and claim land as their own
• The government encourages the movement of people into the rainforest to ease pressure on overcrowded cities
• The government had a slogan "land without men for men without land" to encourage movement to rainforests
• Once people move to the rainforest they often use "slash and burn" techniques to clear the land
• The "slash and burn" texhnique can be sustainable where there are small populations and has been in use for thousands of years
• " Slash and burn " can be sustainable, however once the population density goes beyond a level it is not sustainable and the soil becomes so degraded that crops will not grow
• The farmers are forced to move to a new forested area and the process of soil degradation begins again
• Slash and burn leads to a loss biodiversity as many plants and animals die when their habitats are destroyed by cutting and burning
• In the summer of 2019 almost 40,000 fire were burning in the Amazon destroying over 18000 km2 of rainforest
• Land is often cleared for the growing of cash crops such as soya beans
• The practice of growing only one crop is called monoculture and it reduces soil fertility rapidly as the same nutrients are being removed
• The planting of cash crop often requires the use of heavy machinery to cultivate them
• The soil becomes compacted and easily eroded
• Monoculture quickly depletes the soil of its nutrients and therefore relies heavily on chemicals
• Monoculture quickly depletes the soil of its nutrients and therefore relies heavily on chemicals such as fertilisers and pesticides which can pollute groundwater having a negative effect on biodiversity.
• Amphibians such as frogs have largely disappeared from some rainforest areas because of fertilser and pesticides
• In 2019, soya bean production was approximately 120 million tonnes
• Native plants and animals cannot survive in these plantations destroying the ecosystem
• In the twentieth century large areas of the rainforest in South America were cleared for cattle ranches
• Cattle ranchers burned large areas of the rainforest and then planted it with grasses from Africa for pasture land
• In the 1980’s the demand for beef increased in the USA, this increased the amount of land being cleared in Brazil
• Government figures attributed 38% of deforestation from 1966 to 1975 to large scale cattle ranching. Today the figure is closer to 70%