Husker study: Brazil can grow more soybeans without deforesting Amazon

A new study describes agricultural intensification strategies to allow Brazil, the world’s largest soybean exporter, to increase its soybean production by 36% in the next 15 years without further encroachment into the Amazonian rainforest. The study draws heavily upon the Global Yield Gap Atlas, an agronomic database covering more than 15 crops across 75 countries. If current trends continue, Brazil will convert about 13 million acres of environmentally fragile rainforest and savannah to soybean production by 2035, causing biodiversity loss and climate-threatening carbon dioxide emissions. …read more