Key dates
- 26 April 1973Embrapa begins operating following legal preparations in 1972.21
- 1974Brazilian–Japanese agreements initiate preparations for PRODECER.4
- 23 January 1975The Cerrado agricultural research centre, CPAC, is established.3
- 1979Implementation of PRODECER’s first phase begins.45
- 1980The Doko soybean variety is released; a technical communication documents it in 1981.10
- 1993CPAC-7 and CPAC-15 bacterial strains are released for soybean use.12
The Cerrado before large commercial fields
The Cerrado is a biome containing grasslands, wooded savannas and forest formations, rather than a uniform plain. Soils, landforms and rainfall seasonality differ across it. Low availability of nutrients for introduced crops did not make these landscapes biologically empty. Native species functioned under their particular conditions, forming diverse ecosystems with established water and nutrient cycles. Agricultural descriptions of poor soil therefore cannot substitute for an assessment of ecological value.
Indigenous peoples and traditional communities inhabited and used these environments before the expansion of mechanised cropping. Cultivation, gathering and livestock formed parts of rural livelihoods. Research in Jalapão documents farming systems connected with wet vereda environments, seasonal knowledge and crop diversity. A “new agricultural frontier” describes the arrival of a particular production model and new investment; it does not identify land without people, resource rights or earlier practices of environmental management.1576
Embrapa and CPAC organise a research system
Embrapa began operating on 26 April 1973, following legal preparations in 1972. The Cerrado agricultural research centre, CPAC, was established in the Planaltina area on 23 January 1975. These dates mark institutional development and the reorganisation of research, rather than the beginning of all agricultural knowledge about the region. Universities and state institutions had already conducted experiments; the new arrangements sought to connect their findings more effectively with production problems.
The centre’s importance lay partly in bringing together difficulties that appeared simultaneously in a farmer’s field. A promising variety could fail on an acidic soil, while improving fertility was insufficient without suitable seed. Research networks, laboratories and regional trials made these interactions easier to investigate. Extension services and cooperation among public institutions, universities and producers helped move findings beyond experimental stations. The effort involved many teams, measurement, training and exchanges of information.231
Acid soils and the availability of nutrients
Acidity and low nutrient availability constrained many commercial crops. In some soils, aluminium also restricted the growth of sensitive plants. Liming and fertilisation performed different tasks: the former changed chemical conditions, while the latter supplied nutrients needed for production. They were not interchangeable names for one intervention. Successful management depended on soil diagnosis and adjustment of the wider farming system, rather than simply importing larger quantities of fertiliser.
Phosphorus presented a particularly important problem. Its presence in a soil had to be distinguished from the fraction accessible to plants. An experiment published in 1965, using soils from three locations in São Paulo state, had already demonstrated differing responses of phosphorus availability to liming. In one of the soils, the highest lime treatment reduced availability instead of increasing it further. Later Cerrado development drew on this older experimental tradition; no single result supplied a recipe for the whole biome.8119
Soybeans suited to the region and to mechanical harvesting
Expanding soybean cultivation required varieties suited to low latitudes. Temperate varieties could flower too early under short days, before developing enough to produce high yields. Selection for a longer juvenile period helped delay flowering. Breeders also assessed maturity timing, plant height and the lowest pods’ position, which influenced losses during combine harvesting. Seed quality and tolerance of soil stresses and diseases completed the requirements for new varieties.
Doko, released in 1980, illustrates that work. A CPAC technical communication published in 1981 describes crossing and selection followed by trials in several regions, involving multiple Brazilian institutions. It also identifies traits useful for mechanical harvesting and production on partially improved soils. Doko should not be portrayed as an isolated invention or the beginning of farming in the Cerrado. It was one link in a continuing programme that produced further varieties with different maturity cycles, agronomic characteristics and areas of adaptation. Regional trials established where breeding results could support farming.101118
Soil bacteria become part of crop technology
Symbiosis with bacteria fixing atmospheric nitrogen became important to soybean economics. Within root nodules, microorganisms supply nitrogen in a form the plant can use while receiving products of photosynthesis. Researchers selected strains capable of cooperating effectively with the crop under local conditions. In CPAC’s history, the release of CPAC-7 and CPAC-15 in 1993 marked an important stage. Behind an inoculant’s name lay sustained work on effectiveness and the ability of introduced bacteria to compete in the soil.
Experiments by Mendes, Hungria and Vargas in the 1998/1999 and 1999/2000 seasons examined soybeans following maize under two tillage systems. With effective inoculation, adding starter nitrogen did not raise yields under the trial conditions. This did not mean abandoning every fertiliser: phosphorus needs and other constraints remained. Research also addressed inoculant quality and compatibility with seed treatments. Success required suitable living bacteria and effective field practice, rather than merely declaring that a biological product had been applied.121314
Credit, roads, migration and cooperation with Japan
A successful experiment did not determine who could afford to adopt its results. Preparing fields, purchasing machinery and inputs, and transporting crops required capital. Government programmes in the 1970s connected agricultural modernisation with infrastructure and finance. This process formed part of territorial development policy under Brazil’s military dictatorship. Farmer migration, cooperative organisation and road access influenced the location of new enterprises as directly as findings about soil fertility.
Brazilian–Japanese cooperation gained momentum in 1974, and implementation of PRODECER’s first phase began in 1979. The programme combined finance, extension, agricultural settlement and technology. It was not identical with the transformation of the entire Cerrado, operating alongside other programmes and investments. Its history demonstrates the importance of coordination. Varieties and soil improvement required systems for supplies, storage and marketing, while a road without viable production did not guarantee a profitable farm. Opportunities were distributed unevenly, reflecting access to land, credit and organisations capable of supporting investment.456
Environmental and social consequences
Production could expand through more intensive use of existing farmland or by occupying additional land. These processes have different consequences. Converting native vegetation removed and fragmented habitats, while expanding cropping and livestock production reshaped landscapes. Disputes over farm boundaries also concerned the livelihoods of Indigenous peoples and traditional communities. Large fields did not erase earlier dependence on shared space, seasonal resources or local routes of access; competing uses could instead make those relationships more vulnerable.
Hydrological research broadened the assessment of costs. Analysis published by Spera and colleagues in 2016 indicated that replacing native vegetation with crops changes the return of water to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration. The calendar also mattered: single-crop fields and systems producing two crops in a year differed in their seasonal water use. This is not evidence that every increase in output has an identical effect. Agricultural change therefore needs assessment across landscapes and annual cycles, beyond grain harvested per hectare.156716
How land use in the Cerrado changed, 1985–2024: Cerrado biome, Brazil; net changes in mapped land-use class areas, 1985–2024; MapBiomas Collection 10, as reported by IPAM in 2025.
From a single crop to landscape management
Agriculture in the Cerrado was never synonymous with soybeans alone. Maize, cotton, forage production and cattle farming also developed. Cooperation among centres researching dairy production, forage plants and rotations illustrates a research agenda extending beyond one export crop. Combining cropping and pasture raised questions about nutrient cycling, soil cover and resource use over successive seasons. Such systems required organisation and adaptation to individual farms; adopting a label did not by itself guarantee lower environmental pressure.
A 2016 soil study in the upper São Bartolomeu watershed compared native vegetation patches with surrounding pastures and fields under no-tillage management. It highlighted the importance of organic carbon and physical and chemical soil characteristics in understanding how a landscape functions. Research enabled both larger harvests and measurement of their consequences. Cerrado history consequently joins agronomic achievements with questions about the durability of production, the survival of habitats and the distribution of land and water rights among different users.1317
Questions and answers
Did Embrapa introduce farming to the Cerrado?
No. Indigenous peoples and traditional communities already farmed and used its resources, and experiments predated the 1970s. Embrapa helped develop a particular model of commercial farming and research cooperation.71
Sources
- Marina de Fátima Vilela; Zaré Augusto Brum Soares; Elmar Wagner (2020). Pesquisa, transferência de tecnologia e desenvolvimento do Cerrado, in Dinâmica agrícola no Cerrado, vol. 1, chapter 4
- Assembleia Legislativa do Estado de São Paulo (2013). Assembleia vai homenagear 40 anos da Embrapa
- Embrapa Gado de Leite (b.d. / n.d.). Sistema de Produção, 2: Parcerias Institucionais — historia CPAC i współpraca badawcza / CPAC history and research cooperation
- JICA (2002). Contents and achievements of PRODECER, chapter 3, Japan–Brazil agricultural development cooperation report
- Nobuaki Hamaguchi (b.d. / n.d.). Industrial Policy and Structural Transformation of Brazilian Economy, chapter 3, JICA
- Mauro Oliveira Pires (2020). “Cerrado”, old and new agricultural frontiers
- Sílvia Laine Borges; Ludivine Eloy; Isabel Belloni Schmidt; Ana Carolina Sena Barradas; Ivanilton Almeida dos Santos (2016). Fire Management in Veredas (Palm Swamps): New Perspectives on Traditional Farming Systems in Jalapão, Brazil
- Djalma Martinhão Gomes de Sousa; Edson Lobato (2004). Cerrado: correção do solo e adubação, 2nd ed. — opis i rekord instytucjonalny / institutional description and record
- E. Malavolta; O. J. Crocomo; R. G. de Andrade; C. Alvizuri; R. Vencowsky; L. M. M. de Freitas (1965). Estudos sôbre a fertilidade dos solos do cerrado: I. efeito da calagem na disponibilidade do fósforo (Nota prévia) — abstrakt / abstract
- Celso Crocomo; Carlos R. Spehar (1981). Nova variedade de soja para os Cerrados, Comunicado Técnico 16
- Carlos Roberto Spehar (1994). Breeding soybeans to the low latitudes of Brazilian Cerrados (Savannahs), Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira 29(8):1167–1180 — abstrakt / abstract
- Embrapa Cerrados (2024). Transferência de Tecnologia e Inovação da Embrapa Cerrados: Relatório 2021, pp. 100–101
- Iêda de Carvalho Mendes; Mariangela Hungria; Marco Antônio T. Vargas (2003). Soybean response to starter nitrogen and Bradyrhizobium inoculation on a Cerrado oxisol under no-tillage and conventional tillage systems
- Mariangela Hungria; Ricardo Silva Araujo; Rubens José Campo (2009). Biological nitrogen fixation as a key component of N nutrition for the soybean crop in Brazil — abstrakt konferencyjny / conference abstract
- Carlos A. Klink; Ricardo B. Machado (2005). Conservation of the Brazilian Cerrado — abstrakt / abstract
- Stephanie A. Spera; Gillian L. Galford; Michael T. Coe; Marcia N. Macedo; John F. Mustard (2016). Land-use change affects water recycling in Brazil’s last agricultural frontier — abstrakt i opis materiałów uzupełniających / abstract and supporting-information description
- Ray Pinheiro Alves; Antonio Felipe Couto Junior; Eder de Souza Martins; Gabriela Bielefeld Nardoto (2016). Role of soil carbon in the landscape functioning of the Alto São Bartolomeu watershed in the Cerrado region, Brazil
- Lidong Dong i współautorzy / and coauthors (2021). Genetic basis and adaptation trajectory of soybean from its temperate origin to tropics
Approximate dates (c.) describe the nature of the evidence: archaeology dates settlements, layers and remains, not single moments of invention.