Degraded pasture in Brazil

Degraded pasture in Brazil

Published 12 October 2026

What a soil input would need to prove to win in Brazil's pasture recovery. What the public data shows, and the questions an entry decision depends on.

~100M ha

of pasture with intermediate or severe degradation

40M ha

target of the national pasture conversion program

85%+

of the fertilizer Brazil uses is imported

A Faperes market read. Public sources, as of 12 October 2026.

Most of Brazil's pasture is losing productivity.

Brazil's pasture · million hectares, about 177 in total

~35~71~71

Severe degradation (~20%)
Intermediate degradation (~40%)
Other pasture

About 100 million hectares with intermediate or severe degradation

Brazil has about 177 million hectares of pasture. Around 40% shows intermediate degradation and around 20% severe degradation. An Embrapa study found 28 million hectares of it with good potential for crops.

Mato Grosso

5.1

Goiás

4.7

Mato Grosso do Sul

4.3

Minas Gerais

4.0

Pará

2.1

Million hectares of degraded pasture with good or very good potential for crops.

SourceLAPIG/UFG, Atlas das Pastagens; Embrapa (2024), via Revista Cultivar

Credit alone does not recover severely degraded land

A 2024 study of the ABC credit line in the Cerrado found no significant effect on severely degraded areas, and pointed to technical assistance as the missing piece. It also found that over a quarter of the areas declared for credit were not pasture when the loan was taken.

SourceClimate Policy Initiative (2024)

Fertilizer is the biggest line, and it is imported

Imported 85%+<15%

Brazil imports more than 85% of the fertilizer it uses. Any input that makes phosphorus and potassium work harder speaks to the largest line in a recovery budget.

SourceANDA, via Agrolink

Three ways to bring a pasture back

Recovery in place, with liming, fertilizer and sometimes reseeding. Renovation, where the old grass is desiccated and a new forage is sown. Conversion to crop-livestock integration, where soybean or corn enters before the pasture returns. Each one has a different moment, budget and buyer for a soil input.

SourceFaperes read

Market read

The money is there. What works on severely degraded land, at a cost a rancher accepts, is still open.

Public money is moving. The buyer still decides on margin.

Degradation, targets and potential · million hectares

Degraded pasture

~106

National conversion program, 10 years

ABC+ recovery target, by 2030

Good potential for crops (Embrapa)

A national program for up to 40 million hectares

The national program for degraded pasture conversion (Decree 11.815/2023) aims to recover and convert up to 40 million hectares in 10 years, at an estimated US$ 120 billion. Under the ABC+ plan, Brazil committed to recovering 30 million hectares of pasture by 2030.

SourcePoder360 (Mar 2024); Climate Policy Initiative (2024)

Three buyers, three different decisions

The rancher reforming a pasture pays from a thin livestock margin. The integrator converting pasture to soybean pays from a crop budget and thinks in yield. Recovery programs and the companies financing them pay for results they can report.

One product can serve all three, but with three different arguments.

SourceFaperes read

Four routes take a product to the farm

Route	Share of crop protection sales
Distributors (revendas)	45%
Direct to large growers	30%
Cooperatives	25%
On-farm multiplication of biologicals	Not measured

Shares are for crop protection in 2017/18, the latest public split by channel. Distributors still moved 47% of all inputs reaching Brazilian growers in 2025.

SourceKleffmann, via CADE (2020); Andav and Cepea-Esalq (2025)

The bioinput market is large and growing

Bioinputs reached R$ 6.2 billion (about € 1.1 billion) in sales in 2025, on 194 million treated hectares, up 28% in area. Soybean takes 62% of use. Pasture is still a small share of a fast-growing market.

SourceCropLife Brasil (2025)

Market read

In pasture, the input is paid from a thin margin. It has to show its return per hectare in the first cycle, in the buyer's own numbers.

A soil input wins in Brazil on field data, not on its explanation.

Prove it in the tropics, with a control

Results from Europe or from greenhouses do not transfer to hot, acid, low-phosphorus pasture soils. Brazilian buyers will ask for field plots at the moment of use, with an untreated control, in more than one region, across rainy seasons.

SourceFaperes read
Show the money per hectare

Forage biomass, stocking rate or first-crop yield, set against the cost of the product and of the fertilizer it saves. A rancher decides on that number, not on soil biology.

SourceFaperes read
Choose the registration route and the claims together

Soil inputs can fall under different categories in Brazil, from fertilizer and inoculant to the new bioinputs framework. The route decides which claims are allowed, how long it takes and which studies are required. Brazil's bioinputs law (15.070/2024) still awaited its final decree in the sources available in March 2026.

SourceKLA Advogados; Revista Cultivar
Independent evidence beats company data

Brazilian agronomists discount trials run by the seller. Data from Embrapa, universities or research foundations, under a protocol agreed before planting, carries further than any brochure.

SourceFaperes read

A minimum trial design · six treatments

Trial design: six treatments
	No product	Below label rate	Label rate
Full fertilizer	T1Untreated control	T2Product, below rate	T3Product, label rate
Reduced fertilizer	T4Reduced fertilizer only	T5Product, below rate	T6Product, label rate

T4 shows what reducing fertilizer does on its own, so the effect of the product in T5 and T6 can be measured.

Could open

Could block

Market size

Could openAbout 100M ha degraded, with national targets behind recovery.

Could blockNo public figure for spending on soil inputs in pasture.

Public money

Could openPrograms and credit lines exist for recovery and conversion.

Could blockCredit has not reached severely degraded land on its own.

Buyer

Could openIntegrators converting to crops think in yield and pay for it.

Could blockRanchers pay from a thin margin and need a fast return.

Evidence

Could openIndependent tropical data sets the reference for a new category.

Could blockCompany trials from other climates will be discounted.

Registration

Could openThe bioinputs framework may open faster routes.

Could blockThe route limits the claims, and its decree is still pending.

Price

Could openFertilizer savings can pay for the product.

Could blockOn-farm multiplication and cheap bioinputs anchor prices low.

Channel

Could openDistributors and cooperatives already serve ranching regions.

Could blockPasture is not their core business, so they need proof to push it.

Timing

Could openReform and sowing follow the start of the rains.

Could blockMissing one rainy season costs a full year.

Market read

The first soil input to bring independent, tropical, per-hectare data to Brazil's recovery programs will set the reference for the category.

Seven questions before bringing a soil input to Brazil's pastures

Which recovery route does it serve?

Recovery in place, renovation, or conversion to crop-livestock integration.

What does it replace or reduce?

Fertilizer, lime, reseeding or time, in the buyer's own budget.

Which claim can be registered, and how fast?

The route and the claims are one decision.

What Brazilian data exists, and who produced it?

Independent tropical data carries further than company trials.

What return per hectare in the first cycle?

Biomass, stocking rate or first-crop yield, against the cost.

Which buyer pays?

The rancher, the integrator or a recovery program.

Through which route does it reach them?

Distributor, cooperative, direct sales or a program partner.

Degraded pasture in Brazil

Most of Brazil's pasture is losing productivity.

Public money is moving. The buyer still decides on margin.

A soil input wins in Brazil on field data, not on its explanation.

Seven questions before bringing a soil input to Brazil's pastures

Which recovery route does it serve?

What does it replace or reduce?

Which claim can be registered, and how fast?

What Brazilian data exists, and who produced it?

What return per hectare in the first cycle?

Which buyer pays?

Through which route does it reach them?

Bringing a soil input to Brazil?

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