Large-scale agriculture is increasing in anthropogenically modified areas in the Amazon Basin. Crops such as soybean, maize, oil palm, and others are being introduced to supply the world demand for food and energy. However, the current challenge is to enhance the sustainability of these areas by increasing efficiency of production chains and to improve environmental services.

In 2010 the Brazilian Government established a goal to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by agriculture from 36.1 up to 38.9% in ten years (2010 -2020). To contribute for reaching part of this purpose in Tocantins State, Embrapa and other research and extension services partners have been conducting a project of technology transference on sustainable agricultural practices, including integrated crop-livestock-forestry (ICLF), since 2012.

In Pium, Tocantins state, Brazil, in 2012 Embrapa developed a technology transference project in partnership with the state?s rural extension service for the consolidation of low carbon emissions agriculture. The goal was to recover the degraded grasslands of the Trigueira farm (49°1'37.44"W and 10°24'58.84"S) with low cost using a crop-livestock system.

The increasing demand for agricultural commodities is a major cause of tropical deforestation. However, pressure is increasing for greater sustainability of commodity value chains. This includes the demand to establish new crop plantations and pasture areas on already deforested land so that new forest clearing for agriculture is minimized. Where tree crops are planted as part of agroforestry systems on deforested land, this amounts to a form of re-agro-forestation which can generate environmental benefits in addition to crop production.

Brazilian agriculture is facing another expansion cycle to the Cerrado region, more specific in the Northeast. The first agriculture expansion cycle to the Midwest was in seventies encouraged and developed by Brazilian Government with farmers from southern and southeast Brazil, which were traditional small farmers with some experience, low budget and a remarkable determination. All of these efforts after 20 years resulted in an outstanding development of a part of the country with economy based on agribusiness (soybean, corn, cotton, livestock, poultry, swine, etc.).

Providing food and other products to a growing human population while safeguarding natural ecosystems and the provision of their services is a significant scientific, social and political challenge. With food demand likely to double over the next four decades, anthropization is already driving climate change and is the principal force behind species extinction, among other environmental impacts. The sustainable intensification of production on current agricultural lands has been suggested as a key solution to the competition for land between agriculture and natural ecosystems.

In the Amazon, slash and burn is the most common technique used by American-Indians, small farmers and even big ranches to transform forests into rural landscapes. The basis of food subsistence for diverse populations (rice, corn and bean), slash and burn is also a must for the plantation of cocoa, coffee, palms and pastures. The Amazonian rural landscape is currently dominated by pastures, occupying around 80 % of the deforested surface.

Traditional shifting cultivation in the Amazon region has caused negative environmental and social effects due to the use of fire. This type of agriculture has been criticized because it results in emission of large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and a loss of soil productive potential.

One of the most important challenges for the researchers in the 21st Century is related to global heating and climate change that can have as consequence the intensification of natural hazards. Another problem of changes in the Earth's climate is its impact in the agriculture production. In this scenario, application of statistical models as well as development of new methods become very important to aid in the analyses of climate from ground-based stations and outputs of forecasting models. Additionally, remote sensing images have been used to improve the monitoring of crop yields.

There is increasing evidence that public organizations dedicated exclusively to research and development (R&D) in agribusiness need systematic management tools to incorporate the uncertainties and complexities of technological and nontechnological factors of external environments in its long-term strategic plans. The major issues are: What will be the agribusiness science and technology (S&T) needs be in the future? How to prepare in order to meet these needs?