Smallholder agriculture along the lower Amazon floodplain, Brazil

This paper describes smallholder agricultural systems in the lower Amazon where the Santarém sub-Cluster is based. Here, despite the fertility of floodplain soils and a long tradition of floodplain farming, smallholder agriculture is stagnating. Once the basis of the floodplain economy, its role in smallholder subsistence has now been taken over by commercial fishing and extensive cattle ranching.