Structural diversity and change in rural Amazonia: a comparative assessment of the technological trajectories based on agricultural censuses (1995, 2006 and 2017)

Abstract

By applying methodological notions developed by Costa (2009), the present article sets out to define rural techno-productive trajectories in the Amazon, and compares their evolution with data from the agricultural censuses of 1995, 2006 and 2017. By highlighting the growth of each trajectory, the article discusses their fundamentals, set within the context of technological variants that have critically depended either on land or on labour, and were relatively intense, either in mechanical-chemical components or in the use of forest resources or permanent plantations. The results have underlined the significance that trajectories based on temporary crops and beef cattle have assumed within the region, as well as the risks and structural changes that this has involved. Results have also demonstrated the contrast represented by trajectories based on agroforestry systems and permanent crops.

Trajetorias: a dataset of environmental, epidemiological, and economic indicators for the Brazilian Amazon

“…These disputes have resulted in intense transformations of the forest landscape partially observed by changes in land use and land cover indicators. The agrarian systems associated with large-scale cultivation of temporary crops, extensive livestock and intensive farming, are driving forest cover loss, deforestation, and degradation [1][2][3] .The increasing pressure on this vast biome that has the highest levels of biodiversity in the world, creates critical socio-environmental conditions that can trigger the emergence of new infectious diseases originating from wild reservoirs [4][5][6] . Finding social-economic-environmental integrated solutions for the Amazon region demands joint effort and innovation to build collaborative environments for debate and dialogue toward the development of informed multidisciplinary and multicultural processes, knowledge exchange, harmonization of concepts and consolidation of meaningful indicators.…”

“…Laboratório de investigação em Sistemas Socioambientais, instituto nacional de Pesquisas espaciais, São José dos Campos, 12227-900, Brazil 2. Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Barcelona, 08034, Spain 3.…”

Capacidades endógenas, trajetórias tecnológicas e planos corporativos

“…A escassa interpretação dos fundamentos de reprodução social de parte relevante dos agentes locais e a dificuldade de articulação entre as lógicas que os impulsionam e as estratégias propostas também Maurílio de Abreu Monteiro merecem ser problematizadas, especialmente pelo fato de que as trajetórias tecnológicas que matizam o agrário amazônico possuem, majoritariamente, laços sociais com uma "economia de fronteira" (BECKER, 2005, p. 72) que trilha caminhos opostos aos do "[...] modelo de desenvolvimento pautado no uso sustentável dos recursos naturais amazônicos" (BRASIL, 2010, p. 31). Costa (2021), ao examinar a economia agrária da região a partir da heterogeneidade de agentes, distinguindo no setor rural produtores camponeses e patronais em função da diferenciação de racionalidades, percepções sociais, características reprodutivas e formas de relação com bioma, identificou, em cada um desses segmentos básicos, três trajetórias tecnológicas distintas e, com base nos dados dos censos agropecuários de 1995, 2006 e 2017, extraiu delas uma evolução. Entre as trajetórias patronais, a que é sustentada principalmente pela pecuária de corte e a outra centrada na produção de culturas anuais (soja, arroz, milho e cana-de-açúcar) tiveram crescimento acelerado no último período, respectivamente, 9,3% e 13,4% a.a. (COSTA, 2021, p. 431).…”

Capítulo 15: Sistemas de subsistencia y agronegocios complejos, diversos y cambiantes en la Amazonía

“…In the 2017 census, on average only 8% of the workforce in all of the "family-based" structures were salaried, whereas in "wage-based" structures this proportion was 51%, with negligible variation among the respective types of production systems. In the analysis that follows, we focus on these six actor-structure types and their evolution over time, which we refer to as "productive trajectories," or "PTs" (Costa 2008(Costa , 2009a(Costa , 2009b(Costa , 2016(Costa , 2021. These concurrent trajectories (Arthur 1994;Costa 2013) in land use, labor absorption, income generated, institutional support, and other factors showed distinctive trends in the Brazilian Agricultural Censuses data from 1995, 2006 and 2017, and provide empirical evidence of the dramatic and significant agrarian shifts underway in the Amazon region, whose implications are explored to suggest concrete recommendations for future policies (Figure 15.1 shows the territorial domain of PTs in 2006 and 2017).…”