PRODUCTIVITY FOR CATTLE RANCHING IN BRAZIL

The document argues that cattle productivity in Brazil is inversely related to the share of farmland devoted to pastures, meaning productivity increases as ranch size declines. It identifies land values as a key driver of this relationship, noting that higher land costs incentivize more intensive ranching or a switch to crop cultivation. The authors suggest that combating illegal deforestation, reducing agricultural modernization bottlenecks, and improving access to credit can drive cattle intensification and reduce pressure on forests.

• There is a strong negative relationship between cattle ranching productivity and the share of pastures in Brazil; specifically, reducing the share of pastures by half increases cattle ranching revenues per hectare by 20% and increases the number of heads per hectare by 0.25 in a typical municipality.
• Land values explain at least one-third of the inverse relationship between cattle productivity and pasture share, as higher land costs relative to capital incentivize ranchers to use less land and more intensive management practices.
• Brazil's cattle productivity is currently very low, with approximately one head of cattle per hectare of pastureland, but land management improvements alone could double this productivity, and combined cattle management improvements could increase it by a factor of 2.5.
• Productivity growth in cattle ranching has slowed, with the number of heads per hectare increasing by only 6.5% from 2006 to 2017, compared to a 27.8% increase between 1995 and 2006, with a particular decline observed in the Amazon over the last eleven years.
• Policies to combat illegal deforestation and land grabbing can unintentionally promote cattle intensification by increasing the cost of expanding land, thereby inducing farmers to improve productivity or switch to crops.
• Reducing bottlenecks to agricultural modernization (such as transportation costs and storage facilities) and improving access to credit can stimulate the conversion of low-productivity pastureland into high-productivity cropland.

APA

ASSUNÇÃO, J., & BRAGANÇA, A. (2019). PRODUCTIVITY FOR CATTLE RANCHING IN BRAZIL. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/WhitePaper_Pecuaria_EN_112019_final-1.pdf

Chicago

ASSUNÇÃO, JULIANO, and ARTHUR BRAGANÇA. PRODUCTIVITY FOR CATTLE RANCHING IN BRAZIL. Climate Policy Initiative, 2019. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/WhitePaper_Pecuaria_EN_112019_final-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=ASSUNÇÃO |first1=JULIANO |last2=BRAGANÇA |first2=ARTHUR |title=PRODUCTIVITY FOR CATTLE RANCHING IN BRAZIL |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=November 2019 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/WhitePaper_Pecuaria_EN_112019_final-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{assuno2019productivity, author = {ASSUNÇÃO, JULIANO and BRAGANÇA, ARTHUR}, title = {{PRODUCTIVITY FOR CATTLE RANCHING IN BRAZIL}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2019}, month = nov, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/WhitePaper_Pecuaria_EN_112019_final-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }