Competitiveness of family agriculture in the South of Brazil

Abstract

Given the promotion of family farming in the enactment of economic growth and sustainable rural development, it is essential to verify how many there are; who are; and where are the municipalities in the South region with the worst levels of competitive performance of family farming. In view of the above, this study proposes to analyze the competitive performance of family farming in the southern region of Brazil. Specifically, it is intended to relate the determining factors of agricultural research with the value of annual production. To meet these objectives, this study employed, respectively, the methods of factor analysis and multiple regression. The data used came from the 2017 Agricultural Census published by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The results revealed an expressive heterogeneity of family farming in the southern municipalities, given that only 1.87% of the municipalities had a very high competitive performance, according to the aggregated parameters. Paradoxically, the municipalities of Paraná have a lower average performance of family farming. In this sense, the municipalities with the worst levels of level are dispersed in the North, Northwest, Metropolitan and Central Eastern Paraná mesoregions. Furthermore, a regression analysis confirms the positive relationship between the annual production value and the impedance factors.

Keywords: Competitive Performance. Family farming. South of Brazil. Factor analysis. Multiple Linear Regression.