SAO PAULO, Sept 18 (Reuters) - In Brazil, a man from the

Guarani community was shot dead on Wednesday morning, a

governmental protection agency for Indigenous communities said,

as a land dispute in the farm state of Mato Grosso do Sul

escalated.

It comes after a violent confrontation in early August

during which armed men, backed by farmers in trucks and

tractors, attacked Indigenous people reclaiming land in the vast

farming state, injuring 11 of them.

The man was shot in the head on Wednesday morning, the

indigenous affairs agency Funai said. The dispute relates to the

Nhanderu Marangatu Indigenous Land located in Mato Grosso do Sul

on the border with neighboring Paraguay.

Terras Indigenas, a database run by an environmental and

Indigenous rights nonprofit in Brazil, shows the land of some

9,000 hectares has an population of about 1,350 and had been

recognized as Indigenous territory.

Funai said it had asked the specialized federal prosecutor's

office to adopt all applicable legal measures and had met with

the judge responsible for the case.

"(We are) committed to ensuring that this violence ceases

immediately and that those responsible for these crimes are

rigorously punished," it said in a statement.

"Given the seriousness of this matter, (Funai) is preparing

new action before the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region,

in order to guarantee the protection of the indigenous

community," it added.

Ranchers have been hoping to clear land to plant soybeans

for export or raise cattle to produce beef. With Brazil's farm

frontier advancing toward the Amazon ( AMZN ), disputes over land claimed

by Indigenous people have multiplied.

Violent land disputes have also become more frequent and

fueled an ongoing debate over the movement to limit Indigenous

claims to ancestral lands in a conservative Congress backed by a

powerful farm lobby.

Lawmakers have proposed an amendment to the constitution

that would introduce a limit to land claims by Indigenous

communities made after 1988, even though the Supreme Court has

ruled that setting such a time framework was unconstitutional.

Less than half of the country's 1.6 million Indigenous

people live on about 13% of the country's land mass.