Brazil's Cerrados: Overview

The Vast "Wasteland"

Terrain and Vegetation

Climate

Soils

Production Systems and Technologies

Brazil's Cerrados: Overview

Brazil's frontier region is booming, and the boom is destined to continue long into the future. The potential of this vast and largely untapped area--the largest virgin land mass on earth--is beyond rational speculation.Brazil's high-plains, the cerrados, cover an estimated 207 million hectares, or about one-fourth of the country. All but a small area lies south of the equator.

From a US perspective, the cerrados equal 26% of the area of the lower 48 states--more than 510 million acres--an area larger than the US east of the Mississippi River, excluding Florida. Only about 60 million ha--about one-fourth of the cerrados--is now economically used. Of that, dryland and irrigated crops cover about 25 million ha. The rest is in pasture.

EMBRAPA, Brazil's agricultural research organization, estimates that another 100+ million ha are suited for modern mechanized crop agriculture. More recently, the USDA estimated that between 145 and 170 million hectares (402 million acres) could be opened for crop production. This means that the agricultural area yet to be opened is more than 25 percent larger than the total crop acreage of the U.S.

For more information on Brazil's Cerrados, see http://www.fas.usda.gov/pecad2/highlights/2003/01/Ag_expansion