Soybean production in Paraguay: agribusines economic change and agrarian transformations

Abstract

Contemporary corporate-led agricultural commodity production has seen profound transformations in rural spaces. This article focuses on soybean production in Paraguay, analysing corporate activity in the productive, commercial and economic dynamics of the soybean market and identifies the impacts of this monoculture on small farmers. Drawing on mixed methods, the research points to high levels of concentration of this market in the hands of a few transnational companies, which control the value chain via contractual relations with farmers. Through a complex set of relations, soybean production has seen smallholder farmers fall into debt and become unable to maintain their activity and migrate to new regions, leasing their land and, in the worst cases, lose both their land and status as farmers.