Land Use Capability and the Sustainable Scale: An Overview of Agriculture in São Paulo State, Brazil

作     者：Oscar Sarcinelli Ademar Ribeiro Romeiro Lauro Charlet Pereira Sergio Gomes Tosto Oscar Sarcinelli;Ademar Ribeiro Romeiro;Lauro Charlet Pereira;Sergio Gomes Tosto

作者机构：Núcleo de Economia Agrícola e Meio Ambiente Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) Campinas Brazil EMBRAPA Meio Ambiente Jaguariúna Brazil EMBRAPA Territorial Campinas Brazil 

出 版 物：《Natural Resources》 (自然资源（英文）)

年 卷 期：2022年第13卷第8期

页      面：171-180页

学科分类：0202[经济学-应用经济学] 02[经济学] 020205[经济学-产业经济学] 

主　　题：Land Use Planning Land Capability Agricultural Sustainability 

摘      要：Establishing a sustainable scale in natural resources management enables effective economic and ecological policies and guarantees the long-term sustainability of economic production. In agriculture, land evaluations determine the land use sustainable scales, that is, those that avoid land degradation and allow the provision of food, wood, energy, and ecosystem services over time. The paper assessed São Paulo State’s agricultural sustainability by analyzing the current land use adequacy to the land use capability map that follows FAO 1976 “guide for land evaluation and was applied to São Paulo by the State Agricultural Secretariat. Results indicate inefficiencies in land use at the state level, where more than one-third of agricultural lands do not satisfy technical land capability indications. According to technical land use capability, more than 4.5 million hectares are being underused (economic inefficiency) and another 2.2 million hectares are being overused (environmental inefficiency). Pasturelands represent the most unsustainable land use, where 3.7 million hectares are allocated in high quality lands with high agricultural production potential, and another 0.7 million hectares are allocated in lands with very low quality for agriculture, most of than area degraded. To achieve sustainability, lands with high agricultural production potential should be used to improve agriculture and food production and, on the other hand, lands with very low agricultural production potential should be used for wood production, agroforestry, ecotourism and natural ecosystems conservation. Our results provide a framework for improving land use policies in São Paulo State and highlight an opportunity to achieve land use sustainability.