South American, and especially Brazilian, agricultural production is projected to rise this century in order to meet part of the
increasing global demand for food.The FAO estimates that Brazilian soybean and maize production may increase 37% and 13%,
respectively, in the next 10 years (OECD/FAO, 2015). Similarly,
the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA,
from the acronym in Portuguese ) estimates that the production of
these commodities will increase 33.9% and 26.3 %, respectively.To
avoid negative environmental consequences, increases in Brazilian
food production should ideally not be achieved by aproportional
increase in the planted area, and double cropping agriculture systems might play an important role to achieve this objective.