Water use and impacts of Brazilian agricultural production and consumption: from global supply chains to regional rainfall

The trade of agricultural commodities from Brazil is known to be linked to deforestation, greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions and impacts on biodiversity.

While these impacts are the main motivation behind existing zero deforestation commitments from countries and companies, their effects on local water use and scarcity remain poorly understood.

This is concerning as the main pathway for achieving deforestation free production is intensification which is highly demanding on water resources.

Brazilian soybean relies on rainfall whose magnitude can decrease with upwind deforestation and increase with upwind irrigation, while a growing cattle population will require an increasing amount of drinking water typically stored in farm impoundments.We will  investigate trade-offs between water use, deforestation and GhG emissions associated with soy and beef commodity exports from Brazil.

Three objectives will focus on (1) quantifying water use for soybean and cattle production, (2) modelling the impacts of deforestation and agricultural intensification on regional rainfall, (3) assessing trade-offs between water use, deforestation and GhG emissions resulting from policies aimed at reducing deforestation for both producers and consumers (supply chains).

This research will contribute to advancing understanding of sustainable production and consumption by taking an integrated approach to assess the impacts of policy interventions on land, water, deforestation and GhG emissions.