Increasing Cattle Productivity in the Amazon Requires New Technologies

This policy brief by the Climate Policy Initiative/Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (CPI/PUC-Rio) analyzes the potential for increasing cattle productivity in the Legal Amazon. It finds that current livestock production is homogeneously low-productivity and extensive, meaning that simply disseminating existing local best practices would only yield modest gains. The authors argue that significant productivity increases require a new business model involving technologies not yet used at scale and a crackdown on land grabbing and illegal deforestation.

• Cattle ranching in the Amazon region is characterized by an expansion of pasture area, which differs from the rest of Brazil where pasture use for livestock production has decreased over time.
• Livestock productivity in the Legal Amazon is highly uniform and characterized by extensive production with minimal input use; for instance, 2017 Agricultural Census data shows only 12% of properties used machines and only 3% used liming for soil correction.
• Disseminating the practices already used in the most productive municipalities in the Legal Amazon would increase the value of livestock production by 17.6-29.4% without increasing deforestation.
• The potential for productivity gains from existing local practices is significantly lower than the potential for grain production in the same region, which was estimated at 49.6% for 2017.
• State-level potential for increasing cattle production by matching the most productive municipality varies, with Pará having the highest potential at 27.32%, while Rondônia and Acre have potentials of less than 10%.
• Achieving major productivity gains requires a new business model and the introduction of technologies not yet used at scale, as well as combating land grabbing, which uses low-productivity livestock farming as a tool for territory occupation.
• Promising paths for increasing productivity include scaling up initiatives like the Pecuária Verde project in Paragominas, the Sustainable Livestock in the Amazon (PECSA) company, and the crop-livestock integration system on a single farm (ICLS).
• Legal insecurity and property rights issues encourage extensive, low-productivity ranching for land speculation; therefore, implementing the Forest Code and controlling illegal deforestation are necessary to incentivize intensification.

APA

Filho, F. L. L., Bragança, A., & Assunção, J. (2021). Increasing Cattle Productivity in the Amazon Requires New Technologies. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/AMZ2030-Productivity-in-the-Amazon.pdf

Chicago

Filho, Francisco Luis Lima, Arthur Bragança, and Juliano Assunção. Increasing Cattle Productivity in the Amazon Requires New Technologies. Climate Policy Initiative, 2021. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/AMZ2030-Productivity-in-the-Amazon.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Filho |first1=Francisco Luis Lima |last2=Bragança |first2=Arthur |last3=Assunção |first3=Juliano |title=Increasing Cattle Productivity in the Amazon Requires New Technologies |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=April 2021 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/AMZ2030-Productivity-in-the-Amazon.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{filho2021increasing, author = {Filho, Francisco Luis Lima and Bragança, Arthur and Assunção, Juliano}, title = {{Increasing Cattle Productivity in the Amazon Requires New Technologies}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2021}, month = apr, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/AMZ2030-Productivity-in-the-Amazon.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }