The integration of trees, crops, and livestock (or simply agroforestry) is among the priority policies in Brazil to increase food production without further deforestation and carbon emissions. The environmental benefits of agroforestry are well known, such as restoration of degraded lands, water and soil conservation, carbon and nitrogen fixation. However, the economic impacts of agroforestry are still poorly understood. A research partnership between the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) analyzed the impacts of the diffusion of agroforestry on cattle farming in Brazil. The researchers published a paper in the journal Land Use Policy highlighting that the diffusion of agroforestry systems had positive and relevant impacts on the stocking rate (heads/pasture area) and, in some cases, in the total value of production. 

The study (click here for full access) was developed by Alexandre Gori Maia (UNICAMP), Grabriela Eusebio (UNICAMP), Maria do Carmo Fasiaben (EMBRAPA), Andre Moraes (EMBRAPA), Eduardo Assad (EMBRAPA), and Vanessa Pugliero (EMBRAPA). The authors used municipal-level information from the Agricultural Census 2006 and 2017. Their empirical strategy combined spatial panel data models with instrumental variable estimators, which allowed the authors to reinforce the causal relationship between the diffusion of agroforestry and agricultural production. The study also considered the broad heterogeneity of the impacts according to the biome and the crops used in the integrated systems.

Brazil has the second-largest cattle herd globally (only behind India), nearly 200 million heads. However, more than half of Brazilian livestock production is on degraded pastures. In the last decade, the total pasture lands decreased for the first time in the historical series, while the stocking rate (heads/hectare) increased by 18% (from 1.70 heads/ha in 2006 to 2.02 in 2017). In parallel, the share of agricultural lands with agroforestry also increased, from 2.8% in 2006 to 4.5% in 2017. Agroforestry can increase support capacity and stocking rate when followed by improvements in soil quality and renewed pasturelands.

The study indicates that agroforestry had positive impacts on the stocking rate, i.e., agroforestry increased the productivity of pastures. However, this positive impact on the productivity of pastures may have been offset by reducing the total area used for grazing, i.e., farmers may be using pastures more efficiently. As a result, agroforestry did not affect the total cattle herd. 

The authors also found positive and significant impacts agroforestry on the total value of agricultural production in the Mata Atlantica biome and when agroforestry was associated with soybean croplands. Compared to other biomes, cattle farming in the Mata Atlantica is more intensive in capital, technology, and skilled labor. These factors may be associated with the success of agroforestry because it is an evolving learning process that requires continual adaptation. Moreover, soybean is the main crop in Brazil, and the production is concentrated in large farms with intensive use of technologies. All these results together suggest that the choice of the integrated crop and technologies may be critical to agroforestry systems' economic success.

The authors conclude that agroforestry has shown to be a good strategy for the sustainable development of cattle farming in Brazil. Agroforestry has also shown to be a good strategy to increase farm income under particular production characteristics. These positive experiences with agroforestry may provide relevant insights for policies of sustainable agricultural development in Brazil. In particular, policies should prioritize the reproduction of more sustainable experiences with agroforestry in the Amazonia biome, where cattle herd and pastureland grew more effectively in the last decades.