The recovery of degraded pastures in Brazil in the last ten years contributed to the growth of the Brazilian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 0.31%, or almost R$ 17 billion. This is what a study coordinated by Professor Joaquim Bento de Souza Ferreira Filho in partnership with researchers Giovani W. Gianetti, Marcela Araujo and Rodrigo Maule from GPP/ESALQ and Mariane Crespolini - Director of the Secretariat for Innovation, Rural Development and Irrigation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (SDI/MAPA).
The results will be published in a book commemorating the tenth anniversary of the ABC Plan, in production by SDI/MAPA, and were featured in this Tuesday's Valor Econômico (22).
The recovery also generated socio-economic and environmental contributions, such as higher productivity in beef and dairy cattle, mitigation of the emission of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) and an increase in rural producer income, family consumption, jobs, wages and tax collection. According to Mariane Crespolini, co-author of the study, the measurement of socioeconomic impacts is one of the guidelines of the ABC+ Plan, the second phase of the program, with goals until 2030.
In practical terms, the study evaluated, first, the area of degraded pastures recovered in the country, which, according to the Laboratory of Image Processing and Geoprocessing (Lapig), of the Federal University of Goiás, totaled 19.4 million hectares between 2010 The baseline of the analysis took into account macroeconomic variables from 2015 onwards.
“Since the GDP of the Brazilian economy in 2015 was approximately R$6.05 trillion, the observed increase, accumulated in 2021, of 0.31% of GDP in scenario 1 and 0.07% in scenario 2, represents, computed on the 2015 value, a social gain of, respectively, R$16.9 billion in scenario 1 and of R$4.2 billion in scenario 2”, say the researchers in the study.
In the specific cut of the ABC Program credit line, it was still possible to calculate the social rate of return: each real invested in the sustainable technique generated R$0.56 for society. “It is a social rate of return of 56% in the period, of 6.5% in real terms per year. It is a high value even if compared to other policies, such as the use of ethanol and biodiesel, with an impact of 0.03% on GDP”, underlined the study coordinator, Joaquim Bento de Souza Ferreira Filho. “This is what allows production to grow even with the smaller area. This is the way,” he adds.