Degraded Pastures in Brasil: dataset used in econometric models

Degraded pasture restoration is the major liability in Brazilian agriculture but could be the main asset. Here we show the technical inefficiency of livestock activity in Brazil is around 19% in which degraded pastures being the main factor of diseconomy of scale. On the other hand, the recovery of 12 million hectares of degraded pastures could generate an additional production of 16.9 million bovines. There is a large regional concentration of degraded pastures, which would facilitate the targeting of Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (ATER) and Rural Credit efforts to foster pasture recovery, as these two factors have a significant impact in reducing inefficiency. 1% of Brazilian municipalities concentrate 25% of degraded pastures that could generate almost 30% of the total increment of the additional herd via pasture recovery.  At the municipality level, even if most of the degraded pastures were allocated to forest recovery in order to comply with the Forest Code, an increase of 9 M of cattle would be possible due to the recovery of degraded pastures that would exceed the minimum necessary to comply with the environmental law. Redirecting investment credits, especially for resources with controlled interest rate. Degraded pasturelands are the new frontier that could boost livestock activities and avoid deforestation in Brazil.