ABSTRACT
Food availability in Brazil is more than sufficient to feed the country’s entire population. Excluding exports and adding domestic food production to imports, availability of grains is over 340 kg/per capita/year, which represents almost one third more than the minimum nutritional needs. If one considers that 200 kg/per capita/year of grains is sufficient to meet energy needs of 2,000 kcal/day for an adult with 70 kg and, considering that 21 million inhabitants live in Amazonia, it would take an estimated 4,200,000 tonnes of grains to ensure self-sufficiency. Considering that there are some 600,000 smallholders that adopt slash-and-burn based migratory agriculture, who manage to produce a maximum of 1,500 kg of hulled rice per hectare, the maximum area needed to sustain the population of Amazonia would be 2,800,000 hectares/year. As farmers using more advanced methods in Amazonia easily manage to produce 5,000 kg of grains per hectare, the per capita area needed for farming is only 400m2, a mere cultivated 840,000 hectares, using technology to ensure high productivity, could feed the entire population of Amazonia, an insignificant amount compared to the 71 million hectares already deforested by 2006. This provides a clear indication that zero deforestation could be attained in Amazonia by using technology, concentrating on the already deforested frontier, instead of incorporating new areas, far from population centers.
