The increasing demand for agricultural commodities is a major cause of tropical deforestation. However, pressure is increasing for greater sustainability of commodity value chains. This includes the demand to establish new crop plantations and pasture areas on already deforested land so that new forest clearing for agriculture is minimized. Where tree crops are planted as part of agroforestry systems on deforested land, this amounts to a form of re-agro-forestation which can generate environmental benefits in addition to crop production.
Providing food and other products to a growing human population while safeguarding natural ecosystems and the provision of their services is a significant scientific, social and political challenge. With food demand likely to double over the next four decades, anthropization is already driving climate change and is the principal force behind species extinction, among other environmental impacts. The sustainable intensification of production on current agricultural lands has been suggested as a key solution to the competition for land between agriculture and natural ecosystems.
Brazilian agriculture is a success story. The country that until the 1960s systematically received food donations from abroad. and up to the 1980s was still a large food importer, had its agriculture profoundly changed. The traditional agriculture that prevailed in Brazil until the 1970s was progressively transformed in the following decades into a modern and highly competitive agriculture based on science.
Transgenic maize was approved in Brazil in 2008/2009. In 2012, it occupied 73% of the country maize growing area. This high adoption rate confirms studies indicating that technology use has been the major driving force in Brazilian agriculture. Maize seed market in the world has been a concentrated sector. Although, when this sector is associated with transgenesis, this concentration increases sharply. In one side, there is the idea that companies can benefit from gains of scale and complementarities to maximize their efficiency in research and development (R&D).
Family farms are by far the most numerous component of the agricultural sector in the Brazilian Amazon. However socially vital for the development of the region, these small landholdings' agricultural and cattle ranching activities frequently overdraw and degrade natural resources, threatening important ecosystem services. Predominant agricultural practices have been marked by shifting cultivation, with intense use of fire and low productivity, causing high rate of destruction of natural forests.
The "Technological Innovation Act", promulgated in Brazil in 2004, represents the main legal framework implemented to promote technological innovation and to delineate a favorable scenario for scientific development in Brazil. It regulates specially the relationship between Scientific and Technological Institutions (STI) - such as universities and public research institutes - and private companies in Brazil.
Fin des années 1990 : le Brésil adopte une politique agricole duale fondée sur l’appui à l’agrobusiness et à l’agriculture familiale. Dans ce contexte, l’un des principaux enjeux porte sur la définition d’un modèle agricole destiné à améliorer le soutien à une agriculture familiale longtemps niée par les politiques agricoles successives. Cet article participe à cette réflexion, toujours d’actualité, en discutant les difficultés d’accompagnement de la « modernisation » de ce type d’agriculture.
Le présent texte analyse la trajectoire du mouvement alternatif ou écologique dans l’agriculture, en prenant comme référence des données et des informations provenant d’études réalisées au Brésil. Cette analyse privilégie les aspects liés à l’origine, à l’expansion et à l’institutionnalisation de l’agriculture écologique.
Du fait de leur transversalité et de leur objet, l'évaluation des politiques de développement territorial ne peut pas s'appuyer sur les outils utilisés pour évaluer les politiques sectorielles. Les questions procédurales sont très largement dominantes, les dispositifs portant essentiellement sur la gouvernance et la coordination. Pour évaluer une démarche procédurale, il convient de préciser le référentiel d’évaluation à la fois en termes du quoi et du comment évaluer.
Le gouvernement de Lula a considérablement amplifié et diversifié le Programme d’Appui à l’Agriculture Familiale (PRONAF), créé par le gouvernement Fernando Henrique Cardoso en 1995. Ce choix affirmé sur la longue durée pour l’agriculture familiale, peut surprendre dans un Brésil qui a toujours, tout au long de son histoire, privilégié l’agriculture « d’entreprise » : latifundia et entreprises agricoles.