Desenvolvimento econômico e desigualdades regionais no setor rural brasileiro

Abstract

A significant number of researchers have been concerned with the state of misery of Brazilian agricultural peasants during the past years. The socio-economic inequalities prevalent in the Brazilian Rural space as weel .5 the identification of factors likely to be responsible for these inequalities, have been the target of numerous studies, such studies have been more ana more focusing on the sad situation in which the agricultural population live and the importance of government policy making aiming at the elimination of poverty and inequalities in the Brazilian Rural sector. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyse the major factors responsible for inequalties in the development pattern of the Brazilian Rural sector among macro-regions as well as within each one of these regions in the vears 1970, 1975 and 1980. For this purpose, secondary data were used from the 1970, 1975 and 1980 Agricultural Census. The nominal values were corrected by the General Price Index published by Revista Conjuntur Econômica with base changed to average values of 1980. The methodology used in this study consisted of an estimation of redundancy indexes in order to detect the land and hired labor concentration levels; and of a discriminant analysis aiming at identifying those variables which contributed the most to the existing inequalities both among macro-regions as well as within each one of these regions. Discriminant analysis was used in a second stage of the study in an attempt to group Brazilian states in relation to the discriminant variables. Within this framework, it was concluded that the unequal development found in the Brazilian rural sectoragricultural policies which were in force during the decade. These policies benefitted agricultural export and energy crops leading producing regions to show a differentiated pattern of development. Given the vast utilization of machinery and fertilizers by these crops, modern production inputs constituted the variables which discriminated states and regions the most. The large land and employment concentration in all states during the entire decade showed the importance that ownership and utilization of land exerted on the Brazilian Rural development during the seventies and the limited capacity that small land holdings have in absorting large quantities of rural workers since, in general, a decreasing tendency was found with respect to the employment concentration level in these land holding during the period under study.