Environment, production and agricultural structure on the Border of Chaco region

Abstract

A changing relationship between society and environment has been found between the plain of Chaco and the Andes Range in the north-west of Argentina. In a forest where there is a subtropical monsoon climate with inter and intannuals humid and dry cycles, there was first a large quantity of wildly bred cattle within an agricultural structure charactericed by large areas of land. But once the timber industry was established both productive systems spoilt the natural environment. One of the last phases was the introduction of a sort of «pampeana» agriculture, based on a massive production of beans and soy which was first started by local countrymen {owner-farmers) and later turn into a great business production. The economic results could be quite profitable, but the environmental and social ones will make it diflicult to support the process of agriculturization in the mid-term.