Increasing Cattle Productivity in the Amazon Requires New Technologies

The document finds that cattle productivity in the Legal Amazon is uniformly low and extensive, meaning that disseminating the practices of the region's most productive municipalities would only increase production value by 17.6-29.4%. This is significantly lower than the potential gains seen in grain production. To achieve major productivity increases without deforestation, the authors argue for the adoption of new technologies—such as crop-livestock integration systems (ICLS)—and the combatting of land grabbing and illegal deforestation, which currently incentivize low-productivity extensive ranching for land speculation.

• Cattle ranching in the Amazon region is characterized by a pattern of expansion of pasture area, which differs from the rest of Brazil where pasture use for livestock production has decreased over time.
• Livestock productivity across the Legal Amazon is highly homogeneous and predominantly extensive, with very low use of inputs; for instance, only 12% of properties used machines and 3% used liming for soil correction according to 2017 Agricultural Census data.
• Scaling the practices of the most productive municipalities in the Legal Amazon to the rest of the region would only increase the value of livestock production by 17.6% to 29.4% without increasing deforestation.
• The potential for productivity gains in cattle ranching is significantly lower than that of grain production in the same region, where potential gains are estimated at 49.6%.
• State-level analysis shows Pará has the highest potential for productivity increases (27%) if all its municipalities reached the level of its most productive one, while states like Rondônia and Acre have potentials of less than 10%.
• Achieving major productivity gains requires a shift to new business models and technologies not yet used at scale, such as the crop-livestock integration system on a single farm (ICLS), and the scaling of initiatives like the Pecuária Verde project and PECSA.
• Legal insecurity and land grabbing encourage low-productivity extensive ranching because returns are driven by land speculation rather than productive activity; therefore, enforcing the Forest Code and controlling illegal deforestation are essential for promoting 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} }