Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
muh of the mixed subsistence and cash (formerly coton) cropping of traditional
Paraguayan smallholders.
For another of the authors (Navé), the impact of soybeans was evident in the spa-
tial contrast between native forest and cultivated fields, where the 'agriculture fron-
tier' is strething further north from the fertile plains of the Pampa into the semi-
arid Gran Chaco region. This process is highly evident in the Argentinean province
of Santiago del Estero, where native forest is being gradually cleared for cultivation.
In some parts of the province, and particularly in the east, formerly dense forest is
now depleted of its valuable timber and often reduced to mere corridors or islands
of bush around and within large cultivated fields. This process of deforestation is
forcing peasant families who depend on the forest for their subsistence to relocate,
resulting in the expansion of small towns and communities along the main roads.
Also increasingly evident, and in striking difference to the peasants' adobe houses
along the main roads of the province, are
estancias
, whih often include a modern
brik house and sheds for heavy agricultural mahinery. In Argentina, this type of
farmhouse has been traditionally associated with the farming model of the pampa.
The role of soybeans in this expansion is reflected in the numerous granaries, many
owned by Cargill, that can be found along the main roads and in rural towns.
Beyond the visual impacts of soybeans on the landscape, it is easy to find stat-
istical evidence of the emerging dominance of soybeans in the agricultural sectors
of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. The countries currently rank as three of the four
largest soybean exporters globally, demonstrating the value of the crop for econom-
ies dependent on export earnings. Eah has also seen increasing areas under soy-
bean cultivation during the last two decades: recent figures have Brazil reporting
22 million hectares, Argentina 16.6 million (increasing from 5.1 million in 1989-90)
and Paraguay 2.6 million (increasing from 800,000 in 1994-95) (cited in Altieri and
Pengue, 2006). It is perhaps yet more telling that the figures for the latter two coun-
tries respectively represent 50 and 80 per cent of their total cultivated land. Soy-
beans place ever-increasing pressures on already disparate land distributions and re-
latively insecure land rights regimes. In Paraguay, for example, less than 2.5 per cent
of landowners own over 85 per cent of the land, while 41 per cent claim areas of
five hectares or less (Barreto Monzón, 2009). In Argentina, the expansion of soybean
cultivation is associated with a 21 per cent reduction in the total number of farms
between 1988 and 2002 (Aizen
et al.
, 2009). In Brazil, similar tendencies have been
documented for the exclusion of smallholder agriculture where soybean cultivation
