The productive expansion of soy in the Amazon: characterization of the impacts on intraregional inequalities in southeastern Pará

Abstract

Latin America maintains a peripheral position in global capitalism, marked by productive specialization in raw materials and by economic and cultural dependence on the core countries of capitalism. In the Amazon, this relationship has a historical trajectory and, in the early twenty-first century, is characterized by the expansion of commodities such as cattle ranching and soybeans, positioning southeastern Pará as one of the vectors of the expansion of cultivated areas. This article analyzes how the expansion of soy is the result of “spurious productive deconcentration,” generating intraregional inequalities in the territories of southeastern Pará, particularly with regard to its expansion alongside the reduction of planting areas for other agricultural crops, with a focus on family farming. The research covers municipalities in the mesoregion of southeastern Pará, using data from the Municipal Agricultural Production (2006–2023) and the Northern Constitutional Financing Fund (2008–2022). The results indicate production homogenization, capital concentration, and pressure on preserved areas and traditional activities, confirming the persistence of a dependent development pattern with socio-environmental and territorial impacts.