2026-10-13T21:52:24Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33977656 2026-09-23T19:32:21Z category_272 category_39 category_734 category_106 category_132 category_135 portal_87 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

Does rural credit promote pasture recovery? Evidence from Brazil's Low-Carbon Agriculture Policy Pedro Henrique Batista De Barros (25099687) Felipe César Marques (25099690) José Eustáquio Ribeiro Vieira Filho (25099693) Tiago Santos Telles (6401954) Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified Ecology Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified Science Policy Infectious Diseases Computational Biology Rural credit low-carbon agriculture policy pasture recovery policy evaluation The agricultural sector remains one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and is very vulnerable to climate change, underscoring the need for policies that promote climate mitigation and adaptation. Using a two-way fixed-effects panel-data specification at the municipality level, we evaluate the effectiveness of Brazil’s Low-Carbon Agriculture Policy (ABC Programme) through its Subprogram for the Recovery of Degraded Pastures (SRDP), a key instrument for mitigation and adaptation to climate change in a country pivotal to global efforts. Brazil stands out as both a major emitter and one of the world’s largest beef producers and exporters, with livestock alone accounting for roughly one-fifth of national GHG emissions. Our results show that SRDP credit significantly fosters pasture recovery, a key step toward reducing emissions and advancing low-carbon agricultural transition. We further validate and further explore these findings through robustness, placebo, heterogeneity, mechanism, and externality checks. The recovery effects are stronger in the Midwest and South regions, while they show no systematic relationship with biome characteristics or agricultural frontier dynamics. Cooperative presence mediates the effects of rural credit, enhancing the policy’s overall effectiveness and emphasizing the role of collective financial structures. Additionally, the policy generates positive environmental spillovers by reducing deforestation rates, reinforcing its broader contribution to conservation and climate-mitigation goals. Together, these results demonstrate that well-designed rural credit schemes can simultaneously foster climate change adaptation, and mitigation while generating broader conservation co-benefits. The rural credit program contributed to reducing degraded pasture areas in Brazil between 2016 and 2021, supporting low-carbon agriculture.The recovery of degraded pastures is more effective when combined with public actions such as technical assistance and sustainable land management practices.Regional disparities in the effectiveness of the credit programme for low-carbon agriculture in Brazil highlight the need for governance strategies in shaping public policies and allocating resources.The impact of the credit programme for low-carbon agriculture in Brazil is shaped more by political and administrative factors than by biome-specific characteristics. The rural credit program contributed to reducing degraded pasture areas in Brazil between 2016 and 2021, supporting low-carbon agriculture. The recovery of degraded pastures is more effective when combined with public actions such as technical assistance and sustainable land management practices. Regional disparities in the effectiveness of the credit programme for low-carbon agriculture in Brazil highlight the need for governance strategies in shaping public policies and allocating resources. The impact of the credit programme for low-carbon agriculture in Brazil is shaped more by political and administrative factors than by biome-specific characteristics. 2026-09-23T19:32:21Z Dataset Dataset 10.6084/m9.figshare.33977656.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Does_rural_credit_promote_pasture_recovery_Evidence_from_Brazil_s_Low-Carbon_Agriculture_Policy/33977656 CC BY 4.0