SPATIAL-TEMPORAL DYNAMICS OF PANTANEIRO LIVESTOCK RAISING: AN ANALYSIS BASED ON THE CENSUSES FROM THE LAST 20 YEARS

Abstract

This article presents a characterization of the extensive beef cattle raising in Brazilian Pantanal. The activity is passing through transformations that reposition the regional productive environment, with new actors and techniques. In order to presente such dynamics and its intraregional variability, the article explored the Agricultural Census database and identified changes such as reduction in the size of livestock raising farms and increase in the herd size, besides a growth in the rate of planted pasture, to the detriment of native pasture areas, mainly in Southern Pantanal. Variates related to the behavior of the rural population in the municipalities were complementarily used, being collected in the Demographic Censuses and in an empiric research in farms in Aquidauana municipality. The results evidenced changes in the social composition, with reduction in familiar ties among the livestock raising actors, a growth in the number of workers living in the urban space, an increase in the total of rural dwellers with college degree, and a decrease in the income of such population, in spite of the increase in the rural population in most municipalities in the region. It is concluded that there are intraregional differences and trends for a more intensive livestock diversified in social and spatial terms