Brazil: 32% of country's soils have natural potential for agriculture

Among the more than 500 types of existing soils in Brazil, 29.6% have good and 2.3% very good potential for agricultural development. Another 33.5% have moderate potentiality, with problems that are relatively easy to correct. The areas with significant restrictions are 21.4% of the national territory and in 11% of the country the areas have very strong restrictions for agricultural use.

This is what the Map of Natural Agricultural Potentiality of Brazilian Lands shows, released this week by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), in commemoration of World Soil Day, December 5, a date implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

The research analyst, Daniel Pontoni, points out that Brazil is one of the world's largest food producers, which demonstrates the importance of the publication, which is unprecedented. "We sought to better understand the agricultural potential of the soil in Brazil and its limitations, making an analysis not indicative of use, but interpretative of the soil and the relief".

The publication interpreted the natural potential of the soils for agriculture, based on IBGE's mapping, taking into consideration the natural resources, the soil, and the relief. The institute points out that the more than 500 types of soils in Brazil were classified according to characteristics such as texture, stoniness, rockiness, and erodibility, to define whether the land has potential or restrictions for agricultural development.

Places with moderate potentiality are those that have slightly rugged reliefs and that require adjustments for agriculture, but are relatively easy to be corrected. The areas with significant restrictions have more rugged reliefs, with fertility problems and depth restrictions, which would require more complex agricultural management actions and a specialized adapted agriculture.

The classification of areas with very strong restrictions for agricultural use indicates sites with very steep slopes, the presence of undesirable salts, or important depth restrictions, which would require very significant and intensive actions to make the land suitable for planting.

Pontoni explains that the preservation or conservation areas were also classified in this way because of the fragility of the environment. "These are places where agriculture can lead to degradation," he says.

The analyst also points out that the map does not bring local detail, only regional, and that the legal attributions of areas such as, for example, environmental conservation units or indigenous or quilombola territories were not taken into account. "The areas that have some legal framework or attribution must be respected according to the established laws," points out the analyst.