Prof. Vítor João Pereira Domingues Martinho (p)

Soil salinisation is an emerging problem, often ignored by stakeholders because, in some cases, it is not yet visible. From this perspective, there is an urgent need to find solutions and place these issues even higher on the agenda of national, European and international policy makers. Only with appropriate policies and stakeholders who are aware of the real consequences of soil salinisation will it be possible to deal effectively with the situation associated with this context, especially with the challenges inherent in climate change. From this point of view, this study aims to highlight contributions from the literature on the relationship between soil salinisation and the Sustainable Development Goals, with a special emphasis on the regional dimensions of these topics. Taking these objectives into account, metrics from the literature were analysed and a survey of scientific documents was conducted. The results obtained show the asymmetric impacts of soil salinisation, depending on geographical location, the characteristics of economic activities and soil conditions.

Acknowledgement: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No CA22144 (COST Action CA22144 Sustainable use of salt-affected lands (SUSTAIN)), as supported by the COST Association (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). This work was funded by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia I.P., under the project CESAM-Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar, references UID/50017/2025 (doi.org/10.54499/UID/50017/2025) and LA/P/0094/2020 (doi.org/10.54499/LA/P/0094/2020).

Regina Avila Santos, Prof. Humberto Francisco Silva Spolador (p), João Felema

In Brazil, the adoption of second-season corn during the period 2005-2020 led to a significant increase in planted area, driven by the expansion of the land input. This practice, previously feasible only in the South and Southeast regions, became feasible with the development of earlier-maturing soybean cultivars, resulting from genetic improvement and improvements in crop management. In the last two decades, there was a significant shift in corn production volumes, with second season corn surpassing first season production. Since then, second-season corn has remained the main corn crop in the country.
This change in production has been accompanied by a simultaneous increase in soybean output in the main producing states, pointing to a transition from a single-cropping system to a double-cropping system. Therefore, the economic literature has examined this temporal evolution between crops by investigating patterns of concentration or dispersion across agricultural areas using Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA).
This study investigates the spatial associations using ESDA considering areas cultivated with soybeans and second-season corn and identifying the production relationship between soybean and second-season corn. The analysis aims to determine whether the expansion of soybean-cultivated areas exhibits a direct spatial correlation with second-season corn–planted areas at the municipal level. The results reveal significant spatial correlations characterized by “High–High” clusters in selected municipalities of the states of Mato Grosso (MT), Mato Grosso do Sul (MS), and Goiás (GO). These findings indicate a strong interdependence between the expansion of soybean cultivation and second season corn production in neighboring areas within these states, as well as providing insights into production volumes.

Prof. Nicole Castro (p), Prof. Gustavo Moreira, Dr. Daniel Amaral

Brazil’s soybean boom has profoundly reshaped large parts of the country’s territory. Soybean area expanded by more than 330% between 1988 and 2024, accounting for most of the increase in cultivated land and a substantial share of growth in agricultural output. This expansion occurred both through intensification in consolidated regions and through the spatial diffusion of highly intensive production systems into new frontier areas – initially across central regions and, more recently, toward the northern Cerrado savanna. For these reasons, soybeans have become a focal point in debates on agricultural-led regional development in Brazil.
This study examines the socioeconomic impacts of Brazil’s soybean production chain, asking whether its expansion has generated net positive or negative effects on local economic development. While direct agricultural effects – such as farm employment, wages, and tax revenues – are often emphasized, less attention has been paid to indirect and spatial spillovers. In modern, capital-intensive agricultural systems such as soybean production, the literature suggests that development effects are less likely to arise from farm-level employment itself and more likely to operate through value-chain linkages and territorial spillovers. This perspective motivates our focus on the soybean production chain as a whole.
The paper also addresses the heterogeneity of these impacts, examining how they vary across space and local productive structures and identifying the conditions under which soybean expansion is associated with positive development outcomes. In particular, we investigate whether effects differ according to municipal size, pre-existing economic structure, and the presence of upstream and downstream agro-industrial activities.
Empirically, we proceed in two steps. First, we estimate the reduced-form relationship between municipal exposure to soybean expansion and a set of development outcomes, including non-agricultural employment, wage levels, sectoral diversification, and indicators of economic activity. We then examine whether these patterns are consistent with a labor-market channel, focusing on employment in soybean-related agriculture and agro-industry. The analysis uses a panel of Brazilian municipalities. Taken together, the results shed light on when and where large-scale agricultural expansion contributes to local economic transformation.