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This article presents a comparison for the impact from lack of land governance in Brazil between livestock and agricultural production. It begins with a brief description of the land regulatory system and its development in Mato Grosso do Sul State and Brazil. The methodology was based on focus groups research, conducted by CEPEA/USP (Center for advanced Studies on Applied Economics/University of São Paulo) on local production sites in Mato Grosso do Sul state, where a regional modal farm was established. With these data, a comparison for the importance of land prices in livestock and soybean investment indicators (Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return) was performed to understand how land speculation process can be described through the traditional succession of these two activities. The results shows how lack of land governance affects in different ways the Livestock and Agricultural production. In livestock production there is lower investment demand, lower risk and lower profitability given a distinguished importance for land appreciation in the investment analysis. As for soybean and corn production, land appreciation showed a less important role, since it has been a clearly profitable activity on its own. Because soybean and corn production has a considerably higher risk and demand for investment, land prices showed a greater importance as the “opportunity cost of land” than speculative uses, what increases the pressure over the owner to be more productive (since the farmer could alternatively lease or sell the land for a lower risk income). Still, the great amount of capital to acquire land tend to keep away new investors from the development of production activities through the acquisition of agricultural land, given its impact on investment indicators.
