The Western Bahia land is naturally covered with native vegetation called cerrado and is predominately low growing grasses and scrubby woody trees.  Trees rarely grow more than 10m tall or 25cm in diameter.  The wood is generally hard and slow to decompose without human intervention. 

Land clearing on the cerrado takes place during the rainy season when the ground is soft and plant roots are more easily pulled out by the “chaining”.  The normal method is using a 50-100m long chain or steel cable which is connected to 2 bulldozers and they move across the land pushing over the vegetation and pulling much of it out by the roots.  Any large trees remaining are manually felled, stumps are removed and firewood collected and sold.  The rest of the slash is burnt.  After this the ant nests are poisoned and pushed down, then a heavy bush disk is used to open the soil for the first time to a depth of 50cm.  Laborers then manually remove any wood that has come to the surface, or alternatively a root rake can be used behind a tractor depending on how much debris is laying on the ground, followed by 4 – 6 tonnes of lime per hectare is spread.  A second pass with a lighter disk further breaks open the topsoil and mixes in the lime and then a second pass over for any further debris and stumps is made by a team of people or root rake.  Then 'super simple fertilizer' and some micro and macro nutrients depending upon prior soil analysis results are added. There is then a final pass with a leveling disk prior to planting the first crop.

For this new cerrado land liming is most important to sweeten the soil and begin the biological and biochemical reactions needed to build the soil to a level suitable for good agricultural results and to break down the vegetative matter in the worked soil.  Generally the soils are highly saturated with aluminum, and soils are very low in nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium along with few micronutrients available.  For viable agricultural results the soil needs time and money invested in the form of lime, fertilizer, micronutrients as well as being used and worked to build organic matter.  Without this investment the traditional pattern of shifting agriculture is all the land can sustain, and for only short periods of time before becoming exhausted.