Production and Protection: A First Look at Key Challenges in Brazil

This 2013 report by the Climate Policy Initiative proposes a 'Production and Protection' (P&P) strategy for Brazil to simultaneously grow its rural economy and protect natural resources. The analysis finds that agricultural productivity can be increased without further deforestation by addressing non-geographical barriers such as poor infrastructure, limited access to credit for small farmers, and underdeveloped land rental markets. While Brazil has succeeded in reducing large-scale Amazon deforestation, the report highlights new challenges, including small-scale forest clearing and the need for better protection of the Cerrado biome through incentive-based policies.

• Brazil can increase agricultural production through productivity gains without compromising environmental preservation. Productivity varies significantly across and within regions, with non-geographical factors—such as access to finance, technology, infrastructure, and rental markets—accounting for a substantial portion of this variation.
• While Brazil has established frameworks for protecting public lands, particularly in the Amazon, it faces ongoing challenges in protecting native vegetation on private properties and in biomes outside the Amazon, such as the Cerrado. The report suggests that monitoring and law enforcement alone may be insufficient for the Cerrado, necessitating incentive-based policies like payment for environmental services.
• Amazon deforestation has shifted from large-scale clearings to cutting forest in small increments. This trend may be a result of the technical limitations of Brazil's monitoring systems, which can only track clearing activity above a certain size threshold.
• Access to credit is a significant driver of agricultural productivity, with approximately 20% of regional productivity variation associated with credit availability. However, access is highly unequal: in 2006, nearly 75% of large-scale crop farmers accessed credit, compared to less than 20% of small-scale producers.
• Fear of indebtedness is a primary barrier to credit access for farmers who need resources. For small-scale farmers, nearly 44% who need credit do not seek it due to this fear, while the figure is 37% for large farms, indicating that existing risk-mitigation and insurance mechanisms are insufficient.
• Technical assistance and education significantly boost productivity. For small farms, average crop production per hectare increases by 47% (from 2,170 BRL to 3,190 BRL) in municipalities with above-median technical assistance. While higher education levels benefit both sectors, crop farming requires higher specialization (college education) for gains, whereas cattle ranching primarily requires elementary education.
• Land rental markets in Brazil are underdeveloped, with less than 5% of agricultural land under lease or partnership in 2006, compared to over 35% in Europe and over 65% in the United States. Active rental markets are associated with higher productivity and the conversion of low-productivity pasture into high-productivity cropland.
• Poor infrastructure, particularly transportation and storage, imposes high costs and reduces productivity. Brazil's overall storage capacity is 80% of the total harvest, below the FAO recommended 120%. Transportation costs for soybeans from leading production areas to export points are nearly three times higher than for similar distances in the United States.
• The National Program for the Strengthening of Family Agriculture (Pronaf) is the primary credit policy for small-scale farmers, providing 62.5% of total credit for this sector. However, only 17.68% of small farms actually accessed credit in 2006.

APA

Assunção, J., Gandour, C., Hemsley, P., Rocha, R., & Szerman, D. (2013). Production and Protection: A First Look at Key Challenges in Brazil. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Production-and-Protection-A-First-Look-at-Key-Challenges-in-Brazil.pdf

Chicago

Assunção, Juliano, Clarissa Gandour, Pedro Hemsley, Romero Rocha, and Dimitri Szerman. Production and Protection: A First Look at Key Challenges in Brazil. Climate Policy Initiative, 2013. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Production-and-Protection-A-First-Look-at-Key-Challenges-in-Brazil.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Assunção |first1=Juliano |last2=Gandour |first2=Clarissa |last3=Hemsley |first3=Pedro |last4=Rocha |first4=Romero |last5=Szerman |first5=Dimitri |title=Production and Protection: A First Look at Key Challenges in Brazil |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=December 2013 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Production-and-Protection-A-First-Look-at-Key-Challenges-in-Brazil.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{assuno2013production, author = {Assunção, Juliano and Gandour, Clarissa and Hemsley, Pedro and Rocha, Romero and Szerman, Dimitri}, title = {{Production and Protection: A First Look at Key Challenges in Brazil}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2013}, month = dec, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Production-and-Protection-A-First-Look-at-Key-Challenges-in-Brazil.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }