Methods
Since 1986, a research team from Embrapa NMA has been partaking in a detailed study of one sample rural properties of Machadinho d'Oeste. The first data survey, realized in December of 1986, provided a circumstantial vision of the farmers and their agricultural practices. Aware of the transformations occurring in the region during the following ten years, the team has revisited the study sites approximately every three years in order to follow the evolution of colonization, agriculture, and the accompanying problems and potentialities in this region of the Amazônia.
