Agriculture evolution, sustainability and trends, focusing on Brazilian agribusiness: a review

Abstract

The world’s population is expected to grow by 30%–35% over the next 60 years. Forecasts indicate that the world’s population will reach almost 10 billion by 2050, with India and China as the most populous countries. As a result, the demand for global food production, particularly protein and dairy products, and their nutritional quality will need to increase by 50%–75%. In addition to increasing food production, it is also necessary to consider and reduce the impact on the environment and ecosystem. On the one hand, the threat of climate change, the reduction of arable land for agricultural expansion, the economic impact of geopolitical conflicts, the human and animal health pandemics, the conjuncture of the domestic political environments, and the demand for new technologies are the main bottlenecks to increasing sustainable food production worldwide. In contrast, notable technological advances have been achieved in current agriculture through basic and advanced scientific research, development, innovation, and technology transfer to the agribusiness sector. Technological advances in various sectors will become increasingly important to increase food production and minimize environmental impacts. This review study briefly highlights the major technological advances in world agriculture that have contributed to the substantial increase in food production from the early days of extractive agriculture to high-performance agriculture. It then highlights the key breakthroughs, disruptive technologies, the impact of climate change on agriculture, and contributions from molecular sciences that are revolutionizing global agriculture, focusing on Brazilian agriculture, livestock, and agribusiness. Subsequently, the evolution of Brazilian agriculture is highlighted based on the market share of agricultural products and its relevance to the national GDP. Finally, the potential decision-making that could have a positive impact on the Brazilian agribusiness sector and that will affect the import and export of agribusiness products were addressed. Therefore, the importance of supporting the agribusiness sector to increase healthy food production with higher nutritional quality and with less impact on the environment and human life was highlighted.

From Traditionally Extensive to Sustainably Intensive: A Review on the Path to a Sustainable and Inclusive Beef Farming in Brazil

“…Palisade grasses from Africa were introduced in the early 1970s, along with Indian cattle (Zebu breeds), creating a favorable environment for cattle farming (Chaddad, 2015) [7]. The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation -EMBRAPA, created in 1973, was strategic for developing tropical technologies adapted to Cerrado's harsh conditions, which was later considered the Sustainable Tropical Agriculture Revolution of the 20 th century (Basso, Neves and Grossi-de-Sá, 2024) [3].…”

“…With the expansion of Brazilian agriculture and the structuring of grain processing industry, larger amounts of cereals and co-products became available in the market (Silvestre & Millen, 2021) [31], which favored the growth of feedlot operations that, today, finish about 7.6 million cattle (ABIEC, 2023) [2]. Estimates of another 5 million head are also finished with high grain diets (e.g., 1.5% to 2% intake of the body weight in concentrates) while still grazing 3 . As intensive and semi-intensive finishing systems are becoming more widely adopted, the carcass weight is increasing (ABIEC, 2023) [2] and the age at slaughter is decreasing.…”

“…The sector's GDP increased from BRL 1 356 billion in 2011 to BRL 913 billion in 2021, with an average growth rate of 9.9% (ABIEC, 2023) [2]. According to Basso et al (2024) [3], in 2023, crops, livestock, and the agribusiness as a whole contributed appoximately 18%, 6.8%, and 24.8% to Brazil's GDP, respectively. The number of importing countries grew, with China becoming a significant destination alongside other established markets like Hong Kong, the European Union, Egypt and Chile.…”

Table_2.xlsx

“…The increasing and severe climate change and demand for healthy food in sufficient quantity are major factors that are challenging agriculture and consumer populations around the world (Arif et al, 2021;Grossi-de-Sa and Basso, 2024;Basso et al, 2024b). Given this, it is urgent to spend breeding efforts to improve the agronomic traits of these crops associated with abiotic and biotic tolerance, grain yield, nutritional features, and plant architecture to produce more food at a lower cost per area (Weller and Ortega, 2015;Haile et al, 2021;Asati et al, 2022;Basso et al, 2023).…”

DataSheet_1.docx

“…The increasing and severe climate change and demand for healthy food in sufficient quantity are major factors that are challenging agriculture and consumer populations around the world (Arif et al, 2021;Grossi-de-Sa and Basso, 2024;Basso et al, 2024b). Given this, it is urgent to spend breeding efforts to improve the agronomic traits of these crops associated with abiotic and biotic tolerance, grain yield, nutritional features, and plant architecture to produce more food at a lower cost per area (Weller and Ortega, 2015;Haile et al, 2021;Asati et al, 2022;Basso et al, 2023).…”