Economic and ecological perspectives on agriculture in the eastern Amazon

TONIOLO, Angelica; UHL, Christopher. Economic and ecological perspectives on agriculture in the Eastern Amazon. World Development, v. 23, n. 6, p. 959-973, 1995.

Abstract

There are more than five million people that depend on subsistence agriculture for livelihood in the Brazilian Amazon. Using a case study approach, we show that intensive approaches to agriculture can offer advantages over extensive-style shifting cultivation and ranching in terms of productivity, net returns, and job and tax generation. We then use our data to illustrate how the availability of land, labor, and capital affects the adoption of intensive agricultural practices in the Eastern Amazon.