Produção Nacional
Revisado por pares
Soil Erosion in Brazil from Coffee to the Present-day Soy Bean Production
2009; Elsevier BV; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/s0928-2025(08)10011-6
ISSN2213-588X
AutoresSelma Simões de Castro, José Pereira de Queiroz Neto,
Tópico(s)Soil erosion and sediment transport
ResumoThroughout the twentieth century, Brazilian agriculture was responsible for rapid occupation of territory, especially because of two major crops that were characteristic of the most important agricultural frontiers. The coffee culture was predominant in Brazil during the first half of the century. This crop greatly influenced the country’s national and international economic standing. That period was called the Brazilian coffee cycle, most notably in the south and southeast, where pedoclimatic and geomorphological conditions were more appropriate. However, during the second half of the century, soy and cattle-raising became major factors influencing the expansion of Brazilian agriculture and the incorporation of new areas to the territory, specifically in the savanna region. This expansion was the result of prevailing morphopedological conditions and the new technologies brought about by advances in agronomic research linked to soil correction, fertilization, and irrigation. Subsequent hydropedological imbalances have accelerated erosive water dissection of the relief and the consequent production of sediments, responsible for silting valley floors, reservoirs, and drainage channels. These problems are frequently caused or promoted by the intense and indiscriminate deforestation taking place, in the case of coffee, on large expanses of the Mata Atlântica (Atlantic Forest), and in the case of soy, in the savanna.
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