Dairy Farming and Deforestation in Nicaragua?

Abstract

The dynamism and growth of dairy production and exportation in Nicaragua has generated expectations of inclusive growth for dairy farmers. It has also generated expectations of a slowing down in the advance of the agricultural frontier in the country through the intensification of productive systems. But the model is biased against small and medium producers who are poor and lack access to the economic benefits generated by the sector. Those connected to the production and exportation of dairy products choose to grow through the incorporation of more land, reinforcing the extensive farming logic. The excluded producers take advantage of price differences between the old and the new agricultural frontier to sell land from the former and migrate to the latter, where they can buy more land for lower prices. The result is the continuous advance of the agricultural frontier towards the last tropical forest areas in Nicaragua.