Dynamics of agricultural expansion in Uruguayan territories

Abstract

For two decades, Uruguay has experienced a process of agrarian transformations based on forest expansion first and rainfed agriculture later, with strong impacts on the productive structure, the actors in the productive chains, the organizational forms of production and labor, territories and rural landscapes. The most evident side of this transformation process involves land use and is clearly visible through the expansion of crops in territories with different productive traditions. These changes are taking place together with the advance of agribusiness, understood as a productive model that deploys a new agriculture with different logics from those of the classic agricultural entrepreneurship, less linked to local actors and territories and with a greater degree of connection with global networks. By investing in Uruguayan agriculture, transnational capital reconfigures the landscape, redefining the local identity of territories and the relationships with those who inhabit and produce them. This article puts into dialogue the analysis of the social phenomena that emerge from the advance of the agribusiness model with the specific processes that occur at the territorial level based on multiple empirical evidence. Based on the analysis of satellite images, field trips and interviews, it focuses on analyzing the new configurations of rainfed agriculture in Uruguayan territories, in order to determine the dimension and understand the social processes triggered by the deployment of the agribusiness model since the 2000s.