Abstract:
The La Plata Basin is a globally significant area of agricultural production where large-scale, agribusiness-dominated biofuel production has changed the rural production landscape to extensive monoculture areas. This report assesses the land use-hydrology-soil carbon-climate interactions; it provides an overview on project activities and summarizes research results on industrial crop production, the social implications of new forms of agricultural production and agribusinesses, their environmental effects on land and carbon, and land use relative to climate change predictions. Governments should closely monitor and steer large-scale crop production, and provide support for scientific research, to monitor, guide, and safeguard socially equitable and environmentally sustainable development.
