Primary Economic Activities (Leaving Cert Geography): Revision Notes

Primary Economic Activities

Brazil possesses abundant natural resources, making primary economic activities the foundation of much of its economic development. Agriculture and mining serve as major employers throughout the country, providing livelihoods for millions of Brazilians.

Agriculture

Since the 1970s, Brazilian agriculture has undergone significant modernisation and intensification. Today, Brazil ranks among the world's largest food producers and exporters. The government's substantial investment in farming initiated a 'Green Revolution' throughout the country, with over 800,000 farmers receiving loans to modernise their operations and boost productivity. This transformation led to widespread commercialisation of agriculture, supported by foreign investment.

The agricultural sector currently employs more than 38 million people, representing 19% of Brazil's population, demonstrating its crucial importance to the national economy. Brazilian agriculture develops through the influence of both physical and human factors working together.

Physical factors affecting agriculture

Physical factors play a fundamental role in determining where and how agriculture develops across Brazil's vast territory. The country's diverse climate zones, soil types, and topography create distinct agricultural regions with different capabilities and challenges.

Climate

Brazil's tropical climate provides significant advantages for agricultural production. The country experiences year-round rainfall and warm temperatures, creating a continuous growing season that allows farmers to cultivate diverse crop varieties. Corn, soya bean, and wheat flourish across central and southern Brazil due to these favourable climatic conditions.

Most commercial farming concentrates in the south and central regions, where mechanisation enables farmers to work much larger land areas with reduced labour requirements. Consequently, commercial farming operations have begun expanding north-westward towards the Amazon Rainforest.

The subtropical climate in eastern and south-eastern Brazil, with temperatures averaging between 16°C and 24°C and distinct wet and dry seasons, creates ideal conditions for coffee cultivation. The São Paulo and Minas Gerais regions produce the majority of Brazil's coffee crop.

North-eastern Brazil experiences a semi-arid climate that cannot support arable farming or intensive beef production. Farming remains subsistent and extensive in this region, with cattle herds grazing sparse vegetation. Regular droughts cause substantial losses of livestock herds, leading many farming families to abandon their land and migrate to major cities along the eastern coast seeking better living standards. During rainfall periods, heavy downpours loosen and wash away soil. The Sertão region suffers most severely, with famine and poverty widespread among subsistence farmers.

Soil

The terra rossa soils of south-eastern Brazil demonstrate exceptional fertility, supporting intensive crop cultivation. Coffee plantations thrive on these terra rossa soils along Brazil's eastern and south-eastern regions.

Amazon tropical soils present cultivation challenges over extended periods. When rainforest vegetation receives initial clearing, humus in the soil enables intensive growing of cash crops like soya bean. However, with the soil's natural humus source removed, nutrients fail to replenish annually. After harvest, the soil loses fertility until agriculture becomes impossible. Intense heat transforms the soil into laterite, making cultivation impossible.

Farmers employ massive quantities of artificial fertilisers to maintain soil fertility. The rainforest's vast size leads many farmers to believe expensive fertilisers aren't necessary since abundant land remains available for cultivation. Farmers simply abandon infertile areas and clear additional rainforest through slash and burn practices.

Ranching increasingly occurs along the Amazon Basin as the more fertile southern and eastern lands shift towards arable farming. Along floodplains of rivers like the Paraguay and Amazon, alluvial soils promote rich grass growth, enabling ranching development throughout Brazil. Farmers increasingly change to cereal crops such as corn and wheat along these floodplains, pushing ranching further towards the Amazon Basin in the north-west.

Human factors affecting agriculture

Human factors have shaped Brazilian agriculture from colonial times to the present day. Historical influences, government policies, market access, and technological advances continue to determine agricultural patterns and productivity across the country.

Colonialism

Portuguese colonists established Brazil during the fifteenth century, setting up sugar plantations along the eastern coast where they discovered ideal climate and soil conditions. As plantations expanded, increased labour demands arose. Approximately 100,000 slaves arrived from West Africa to plant and harvest sugar cane. With sugar supply becoming abundant, the Portuguese also began cultivating coffee. These colonial influences persist today, as Brazil leads global coffee production.

After gaining independence in 1822, Brazil maintained heavy reliance on sugar and coffee exports to the Portuguese market. This dependency created neo-colonialism, where single-market reliance led to farming monoculture throughout Brazil.

Markets

With over 200 million inhabitants, Brazil maintains a substantial domestic market. Brazil contains 17 cities with populations exceeding one million, most located along the eastern coastline. This creates constant demand for farm produce, with Brazilians ranking as the world's fourth-largest beef consumers. Global multinational corporations like McDonald's and Burger King source Brazilian beef for their US operations.

Brazil belongs to Mercosur, a political and economic agreement among South American countries. Through Mercosur membership, Brazil accesses markets of an additional 187.5 million people. Multinational corporations such as Nestlé have established Brazilian operations to produce coffee, with Brazil accounting for 30% of global coffee production.

What is produced?

Approximately 30% of Brazil's landmass consists of agricultural land. Three-quarters of this land supports cattle ranching and pastoral farming, whilst the remaining 25% serves arable farming purposes. Over recent decades, the Brazilian government has invested substantially to address farming monoculture problems, resulting in wider variety of goods grown on farms.

Arable farming

Intensive arable farming has established Brazil as one of the world's major food producers. Primary arable crops include:

• Soya bean
• Corn
• Rice
• Wheat
• Cotton
• Coffee
• Fruits

Soya bean

Nearly half of all arable farmland now grows soya bean, which became increasingly popular as livestock feed for cattle, poultry, and pigs in the US and EU. This increased global demand established Brazil as the world's second-largest soya bean producer. Soya bean production operates with high mechanisation levels, requiring only one farmer per 200 hectares of land.

Soya bean farms range between 1,000 and 15,000 hectares and are predominantly owned by agribusinesses. In 2014, Brazil produced 68 million tonnes of soya, generating €17 billion and representing the country's most valuable agricultural export.

Soya production concentrates most intensively in southern Brazil where climate permits two harvests annually without irrigation requirements. However, as global demand increases, soya production has begun expanding northwards towards Amazon Rainforest edges.

Sugar cane

Brazil leads global sugar cane production and export. Sugar cane cultivation now occurs throughout the country for food production and ethanol manufacturing. Ethanol, a biofuel produced from crushed sugar cane, began production during the 1970s to reduce fossil fuel imports. Currently, Brazil produces almost one-third of global ethanol supply, with over 50% of Brazilian cars utilising ethanol fuel.

Coffee

Brazil maintains its position as the world's largest coffee producer. Coffee previously represented 60% of Brazilian exports but has declined to just 2%. Coffee cultivation occurs mainly on terra rossa soils of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Paraná states at altitudes of 1,000 metres where temperatures remain cooler.

Cattle ranching

Brazil ranks among the world's largest beef producers, possessing the world's second-largest cattle herd (after India). Ranching occupies 75% of agricultural land throughout the country, with beef production employing approximately 360,000 people.

Cattle ranching operates across many Brazilian regions and continues spreading to new areas. Originally, cattle grazed the rich grassy plains in southern regions. Ranching has now expanded north and west to Brazil's interior and Amazon Basin. The government aims to double beef production over the next decade, though major concerns exist regarding further rainforest destruction.

Brazilian beef represents just under half of all EU beef imports (131,000 tonnes), with the Brazilian beef industry valued at just under €4 billion annually.

Poultry

Brazil leads global chicken production, producing over 13 million tonnes annually. Poultry production contributes 1.5% of national GDP. Approximately 69% of chicken sells directly to domestic markets, with average Brazilian consumption reaching 39 kg of chicken per year. The remaining 31% exports to more than 150 countries worldwide.

Mining

Brazil possesses abundant mineral resources, including valuable metals and ores such as:

• Platinum
• Gold
• Iron ore
• Pewter (tin and lead alloy)
• Bauxite
• Coal
• Oil

A total of 175,000 people work in Brazil's mining sector. Economists estimate that each mining job creates 13 additional jobs along the supply chain, demonstrating mining's economic importance beyond direct employment.

Gold

Gold represents the world's most valuable metal, and gold mining previously constituted Brazil's most significant economic activity. When Portuguese and Spanish colonists arrived in South America during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, they extracted large gold quantities.

During the twentieth century, new mines opened in Pará and Eldorado do Juma states within the Amazon Basin. These discoveries triggered a gold rush as people migrated to these areas hoping to make fortunes. Makeshift towns developed around mining sites, with successful miners earning over €500 per gramme of gold.

Currently, multinational corporations operate the largest gold mining operations. In 2013, Brazil produced 75 million tonnes of gold, ranking as the world's 11th-biggest producer. Projections suggest Brazil will become the seventh-largest gold producer by 2017. Brazilian gold producers have benefited from global recession conditions, as gold investment became viewed as secure during economic uncertainty.

Oil

Brazil extracts most petroleum from offshore oil fields along its continental shelf. When oil prices became extremely expensive during the 1970s, the Brazilian government invested heavily in offshore exploration. Numerous oil fields were discovered, with the Campos offshore field representing the largest. Brazil currently produces over 2.5 million barrels of oil daily, achieving self-sufficiency in oil production, which reduces manufacturing costs throughout the country.

Iron ore

Brazil possesses enormous quantities of iron ore, which supports its manufacturing industry. The largest iron ore deposits exist in Minas Gerais state in the south-east and along Amazon Basin fringes.