Agricultural frontiers and environment: a systematic literature review and research agenda for Emerging Countries

Despite having the largest land and water reserves for agriculture on the planet, intensive agricultural production in emerging countries has stimulated research around the world, especially due to the numerous environmental impacts caused by the expansion of agricultural frontiers. Motivated to analyze the literature on the transformations brought about by the development of intensive agriculture since the middle of the twentieth century, this study analyzes the main studies on the interference of agricultural frontiers on the environment in emerging countries over the last 30 years (1993–2022). To do so, the Systematic Literature Review methodology was used, with the CIMO planning approach and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) reporting guideline. The analysis initially included 14,366 scientific articles from a wide range of subjects in the social and natural sciences, available on the Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics), ScienceDirect (Elsevier), and Google Scholar databases. One of the most significant findings of this study is that there is no specific framework to analyze the relationship between the agricultural frontier and the environment in developing countries; however, literature has mainly been concerned with measuring the impact of intensive agriculture on natural resources, as well as verifying how local socio-economic factors and/or public policies affect populations’ behavior regarding this relationship between the environment and agricultural production. The data also revealed that Brazil is the “country of origin” of the literature on agricultural frontiers and the environment, especially due to studies on the Amazon rainforest, followed somewhat distantly by studies on South America in general and the island regions of Indonesia and Malaysia. There is also a lack of studies on European economies in transition, emerging African countries and Russia, or on the agri-environmental impact of the demand for food in populous countries such as India and China. Finally, in addition to country-specific suggestions, this systematic literature review suggests directions and implications for future research.