Brazil is the second largest soybean producer and the third
largest maize producer in the world, contributing with 30% and 7%,
respectively, of the global harvest of these crops in 2013. Argentina
and Paraguay are also in the top six soybean producers. While
global production of these commodities nearly doubled from1993
to 2013, soybean and maize production in Brazil and Argentina
increased three-fold. This enormous increase in production in the
last 20 years is even greater than the increase observed in the
UnitedStates, the main producer of these commodities world wide
(FAO,2014). One of the main drivers of hese dramatic increases in