O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar os diferenciais de salários das pessoas empregadas em atividades classificadas como agrícola pelo IBGE, com base nos dados individuais da PNAD de 2005. Busca-se verificar as diferenças de salários para uma mesma atividade agrícola, e entre as diversas atividades agrícolas, de forma a identificar quais são as variáveis que determinam o comportamento dos salários nessas atividades, tais como cor, sexo, educação, idade, região geográfica, entre outros. Além disso, estima-se o efeito de interações entre as regiões e as atividades agrícolas, bem como o efeito de interações entre o nível de escolaridade e a região de referência. As equações de salários ajustadas para os quatro primeiros modelos, os quais permitem mostrar os diferenciais de salários entre as diversas atividades agrícolas, mostram que os efeitos das interações entre escolaridade e região e das interações entre as regiões e atividades agrícolas pouco afetam as estimativas dos coeficientes das variáveis idade, número de horas trabalhadas na semana, sexo, posição na ocupação, categoria do emprego e cor. A variável cor, por sua vez, não tem um efeito relevante na explicação dos diferenciais de salários nas atividades agrícolas...

A finalidade desta investigação é compreender as implicações do processo de modernização conservadora na estrutura e nas atividades agropecuárias na região centro-sul do estado de Goiás. Para tanto, a tese defendida é que a região centro-sul de Goiás é um caso especifico, mas não único do processo de modernização conservadora e da assertiva de Ignácio Rangel de que não há necessidade de mudanças na estrutura fundiária para ampliação e diversificação da estrutura de produção e oferta de bens agropecuários. Para a realização do objetivo proposto no trabalho utilizaram-se os recursos técnicos da pesquisa bibliográfica e documental e adotou-se o método analítico descritivo. Os resultados encontrados demonstram que as implicações do processo de modernização conservadora na estrutura e nas atividades agropecuárias da região centro-sul de Goiás favoreceram para o incremento da produção e produtividade dos bens agropecuários. Este fato teve uma grande importância para a penetração das empresas tradings no mercado goiano para a comercialização das commodities agrícolas. Em conjunto com os programas de incentivo fiscal (PRODUZIR, FOMENTAR) e o FCO, a partir de meados dos anos 80 do século XX...

The growth of non-agricultural activity since the 1980s has reconfigured the economic and social dynamic in Brazil’s rural areas. Our paper intends to describe the impact of this growth on income distribution in rural Brazil. We made use of a method of decomposition of two indicators of income distribution applied to1992 and 1999 Brazilian National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) data: the variation coefficient and the Gini index. It was observed that non-agricultural activities have increased the concentration of rural income and that this phenomenon is more prominent in Region I (states of Brazil’s Northeast and the state of Tocantins) and Region IV (states of São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul and the Distrito Federal). It was found that the income concentrating effect of each non-agricultural activity branch (commerce, transformation industry, administration, service) differed by region. In Region I, income from the "Social/Public Administration and Other Activities branch " (a PNAD designation) presents a coefficient of relative concentration greater than a unit, which indicates that income from this activities branch acts to increase the concentration of non-agricultural income in this region. In Region IV, income from industrial activities and from Social/ Public Administration and Other Activities both present coefficients of relative concentration greater than a unit; therefore...

This study aims to analyze the main effect of social programs and cash transfers on the labor supply of non-farm family members in poverty in rural areas of the Northeast. Among the specific objectives, we sought to investigate the effects of these programs and individual characteristics on the decision of participation and allocation of working hours of parents and children in non-agricultural activities. It was assumed, as a theoretical basis, the model of neoclassical labor supply as well as the principle that the decision of allocation of working hours, non-agricultural, is subject to the initial choice of the worker devote or not the non-agricultural employment . The hypothesis assumes that access to social programs and income transfer contributes to the dismay of rural workers, in poverty, in its decision to participate and offer hours of work in non-agricultural activities. To achieve this objective, we applied the models of Heckman (1979) and Double Hurdle, of Cragg (1971), consisting of associating the decision to participate in the labor market with the decision on the amount of hours allocated. The database used was the National Survey by Household Sampling (PNAD) of 2006. The results of the heads of households showed that transfers of income...

This study presents an instrument for farmers and general users to mitigate the risk on the agricultural market. Such instrument refers to different portfolios from a table composed of several agricultural activities. These portfolios are accompanied by its risk and monthly operating payback, along with optimal allocation of its financial resources and the area of rural property for each activity. Whence, eight agricultural activities economically relevant to the State of Goiás were primarily selected (cotton, rice, beef cattle, bean, corn, soybean, sorghum and tomato) and the monthly medium prices series received by farmers were researched at the Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento – Conab. Also, the series of operational costs per hectare were collected from the Federação da Agricultura e Pecuária de Goiás – Faeg. Posteriorly, the operating payback of each related activity was calculated and checked the stationarity of the payback series. After confirmed the stationarity of the time series, the volatility of the payback series from each activity was analyzed. Then was calculated the matrix of correlation between the activities payback on the study and the model of linear programming, which has the equation proposed by Markowitz (1952) as objective function in order to minimize the portfolio risk. The results show portfolios with combinations of two...

Despite the importance of agriculture to economic development, and a vast accompanying literature on the subject, little research has been done on the quality of the underlying data. Due to survey logistics, agricultural data are usually collected by asking respondents to recall the details of events occurring during past agricultural seasons that took place a number of months prior to the interview. This gap can lead to recall bias in reported data on agricultural activities. The problem is further complicated when interviews are conducted over the course of several months, thus leading to recall of variable length. To test for such recall bias, the length of time between harvest and interview is examined for three African countries with respect to several common agricultural input and harvest measures. The analysis shows little evidence of recall bias impacting data quality. There is some indication that more salient events are less subject to recall decay. Overall, the results allay some concerns about the quality of some types of agricultural data collected through recall over lengthy periods.

Greenhouse gas emissions are largely determined by how energy is created and used, and policies designed to encourage mitigation efforts reflect this reality. However, an unintended consequence of an energy-focused strategy is that the set of policy instruments needed to tap mitigation opportunities in agriculture is incomplete. In particular, market-linked incentives to achieve mitigation targets are disconnected from efforts to better manage carbon sequestered in agricultural land. This is especially important for many countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia where once-productive land has been degraded through poor agricultural practices. Often good agricultural policies and prudent natural resource management can compensate for missing links to mitigation incentives, but only partially. At the same time, two international project-based programs, Joint Implementation and the Clean Development Mechanism, have been used to finance other types of agricultural mitigation efforts worldwide. Even so, a review of projects suggests that few countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia take full advantage of these financing paths. This paper discusses mitigation opportunities in the region, the reach of current mitigation incentives...

The objective of the Agricultural Insurance pre-feasibility study is to identify the institutional, operational, technical and financial challenges for the development of agricultural risk transfer solutions and insurance for rice, fruit and vegetables, livestock, and the aquaculture sector in Guyana. The specific objectives of the study include: (i) to identify the production systems, constraints and risks faced by farmers in Guyana; (ii) to assess the institutional, operational and financial capacity in Guyana to manage an agricultural insurance scheme for the selected activities; (iii) to evaluate the availability of information and collect technical data and information needed for the development of an agricultural insurance scheme for the selected activities; (iv) to assess the potential interest of the possible stakeholders that might get involved in the development of an agricultural insurance scheme in Guyana. This report draws heavily on international experience. International experience on agricultural insurance is vast...

Economic development has brought about, the decline in contribution of the agricultural sector to the economy of Sri Lanka, and, consistent with this economic transformation, the structure of employment also changed. Thus, as labor migrates away from agriculture, the productivity, for those who remain in the land, needs to increase significantly. This report examines the constraints to promoting more rapid agricultural, and rural non-farm sector growth, and, reviews the recent performance of the agricultural, and rural non-farm sectors, in particular the non-plantation agricultural sector; scrutinizes the major policy, and regulatory barriers, that hinder a sustained growth in rural areas; and, proposes options for improvement in the key areas. A critical step to achieve this sector growth, and meet the changing demands of the overall economy, is the need to formulate, and implement a renewed rural development strategy, that builds on synergies in the agricultural, and non-farm sectors. This integrated rural development framework becomes an instrument that can complement a sustained growth in the non-farm sector...

One area of weakness in current agricultural policy work in Vietnam is the lack of a clear understanding of both the private profitability of farmers for different crop activities and the social profitability of such activities. Agricultural performance is thus gauged in physical terms (i.e. yields and the volume of aggregate output) rather than in financial or economic terms. This has hampered efforts to compare and contrast the impacts and effectiveness of alternative policy and program measures. Comparative metrics for different crops and farm management systems have been lacking. The main objectives of this paper are: (i) to describe the Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) methodology and how to interpret key financial and economic indicators; (ii) to document the underlying assumptions used for the analysis; and (iii) to provide a summary and brief interpretation of the main quantitative results and outcome of selected sensitivity tests. As a step towards improved sector planning, this paper utilizes the PAM to analyze various farm management systems for rice...

The objective of this report is to examine the linkages between rural economic activity, food insecurity and poverty in Haiti as a means of determining the barriers to rural development. The analysis draws on a newly available set of house-hold level living standards measurement data collected in 2012 (ECVMAS). About 70.7 percent of all rural households are poor, and education levels are low with an average of 2.8 years of education for the household head. Agriculture dominates economic activity (78 percent of all households are involved in agricultural activities), although almost 25 percent of the agricultural households supplement their agricultural income by engaging also in some type of nonfarm activity. Overall nonfarm activity participation (including households that engage in agricultural activities and households that do not) is reported at 46 percent. Nonfarm activities can be related to agriculture upstream (input supply) or downstream (value-adding and processing), or they can be unrelated to the sector (retailing). This report identifies the main factors of production that correlate with increased productivity in the agricultural sector and examines the determinants of nonfarm participation...

Nas últimas quatro décadas, em especial, o meio rural brasileiro vem apresentando uma nova dinâmica em sua população e atividades, o que gera uma nova configuração. Esta nova configuração pode ser observada com relação à ocupação das pessoas no meio rural, com queda do número de pessoas ocupadas em atividades agrícolas com residência no meio rural no século XXI. Observando a nova configuração do meio rural para os estados de São Paulo, Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato do Grosso e Goiás, observa-se que os mesmos têm apresentado os fenômenos acima citados. Entretanto, a dinâmica da ocupação do meio rural no Brasil não ocorre de forma homogênea. Isto posto, busca-se, através desta tese, analisar a distribuição e os determinantes da intensidade agrícola no meio rural dos municípios do estado de São Paulo, Paraná, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso e Goiás para os anos de 2000 e 2010. Através da análise fatorial foram gerados três indicadores (representados pelos escores fatorais dos fatores extraídos) a saber: o indicador de ruralidade, da agriculturalização (intensidade das atividades agrícolas no meio rural) e da renda não agrícola. Analisando a distribuição espacial destes indicadores, representados pelos escores fatorais dos fatores extraídos...

This review's objectives were to examine the structure and performance of the agricultural research and extension systems (public and private) at the central and provincial levels, identify successes as well as constraints to improving the system s effectiveness for fostering innovation, and propose options for further policy and institutional development, drawing on lessons from international experience. The review focused principally on nonplantation crops, although its main recommendations apply across the agricultural sector. This synthesis report summarizes the main findings of the review and builds upon them by adding some new elements. The conflict in Sri Lanka is explicitly recognized. Additionally, the implications of changes in the wider agricultural context for agricultural research and extension are explored, and have led to the adoption of an innovation systems perspective to organize the major findings

The issue of regional differences in development has moved to the center of the development debate in Sri Lanka, partly after the release of regional poverty data. For the past many years, there have been significant and increasing differences between the Western province and the rest of the country in terms of per capita income levels, growth rates of per capita income, poverty rates, and the structure of provincial economies. The structure of the report is as follows: chapter two looks at the poverty/growth/agriculture nexus in the poorest regions of Sri Lanka. It presents data on poverty and growth in the poorest provinces, especially Uva and Sabaragamuwa, and provides an analysis of factors associated with the rural poor. Chapter three provides an overview and brief discussion of the Government's agricultural policies and programs. Chapter four identifies constraints that restrict farmers' incomes in the four poorest provinces. It presents results from extensive stakeholder consultations carried out in these provinces. These results are complemented with findings from the 2005 rural investment climate assessment to identify some of the general constraints in the agriculture sector in Sri Lanka. Chapter five presents the findings of an agricultural resource audit of small-scale farmers in the poorest regions that analyzed production...

A commodity exchange is a goods and financial market where different groups of participants trade commodities and commodity-linked contracts, with the underlying objective of transferring exposure to commodity price risks (UNCTAD). A commodity exchange that only trades goods is known as a physical or 'cash or forward' market, while the exchange that trades price derivatives is known as financial or 'futures and options' market (see Glossary for detailed definitions). Some agriculture commodity exchanges have both. Agricultural commodity exchanges date as far back as the early 18th century. Modern exchanges, notably the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was created in 1848, recently merged with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), is one the oldest and most successful futures exchanges worldwide. Today several agricultural commodity exchanges exist throughout the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. They facilitate trade and financial products in countries whose economies have a relatively large share of primary and secondary agricultural activities or either account for auctions on substantial food imports. This report looks at the current development of agricultural commodity exchanges in the LAC region and offers public policy recommendations that can foster the development of such exchange markets.

Interventions aimed at increasing the income generating capacity of the poor, such as vocational training, micro-finance or business grants, are widespread in the developing world. How to target such interventions is an open question. Many programs are self-targeted, but if perceived returns differ from actual returns, those self-selecting to participate may not be those for whom the program is the most effective. The authors analyze an unusual experiment with very high take-up of business grants and vocational skills training, randomly assigned among nearly all households in selected poor rural communities in Nicaragua. On average, the interventions resulted in increased participation in non-agricultural employment and higher income from related activities. The paper investigates whether targeting could have resulted in higher returns by analyzing heterogeneity in impacts by stated baseline demand, prior participation in non-agricultural activities, and a wide range of complementary asset endowments. The results reveal little heterogeneity along observed baseline characteristics. However...

Indonesian agriculture is at a crossroads. Supporting the livelihood of millions of Indonesians, it needs to underpin renewed and robust growth of the economy; and be a key component of the Government's poverty alleviation strategy. The challenge for the future is to reinvigorate productivity gains among rural producers, and provide the foundation for long run sustainability of these productivity gains. Productivity gains are key to farmer income growth, and for this rebuilding the research and extension systems that have seen a marked deterioration in recent years will be critical. The experience of the Indonesian decentralization of its extension system has been mixed, with adverse impact on extension through sharp reductions in funding, and removal of central-level guidance. At the same time, a series of positive debates and experimentation in management have taken place from a shift on top-down to participatory approaches, input and technology dissemination to dissemination of market and upstream information and technology...

This document summarizes the findings of three reports: Urban Poverty in Mexico, Mexico: a Study of Rural Poverty, and Mexico: an Overview of Social Protection, and, focuses on 1) the generation of income opportunities for the urban and rural poor, and, 2) social protection for the poor. The main messages can be summarized as follows. The poor are a heterogeneous group; importantly, long-term income-generating opportunities and coping strategies differ significantly between urban and rural areas, among different regions, between small and larger cities, and even within neighborhoods. This translates into having urban poor limited to low-quality jobs, marked by low productivity and with limited social protection. Additionally, to continue supporting the rural poor move out of poverty, it is important to increase agricultural productivity, especially for small- and medium-sized farmers, and facilitate their diversification into rural non-farm activities (RNF) of higher agricultural value-added. The rural poor depend mainly on self-subsistence agriculture, self-employment, and non-agricultural activities, and have typically not completed primary education. Conversely, the urban poor depend on access to salaried employment, on non-agricultural activities...

Myanmar is an agricultural country. It is estimated that the agriculture sector represents between 35 to 40 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and that up to 70 percent of the labor force (of 32.5 million) is directly or indirectly engaged in agricultural activities or depend on agriculture for their income. Given agriculture's important contribution to the economy, the modernization of the agriculture sector is a top priority in the economic and social development agenda of the Government of Myanmar. Among the government institutions supporting the agriculture sector, the Myanmar Agriculture Development Bank (MADB) plays an important role. MADB was established in June 1953 by the Government of Myanmar to support the development of agriculture, livestock, and rural enterprises in Myanmar. MADB is currently the largest financial institution serving the rural areas and financing agriculture activities. At the end of 2012, MADB served 1.87 million customers, mostly farmers, and had a network of 206 branches (which accounted for 23 percent of all banks' branches in Myanmar). Since its creation...

The aim of the present study was to assess the temporal variation of the heavy metal content (Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in surface water and sediments in relation to agricultural practices in the Xanaes River (Córdoba, Argentina). A second objective was to analyze possible relationships between the input of heavy metals on surface water and sediment, heavy metal accumulation and physiological changes in the aquatic plant Myriophyllum aquaticum. Samples were taken from the river at two contrasting sites (between April 2010 and August 2010): (1) a pristine area (mountain site), and (2) an area with intensive agricultural activity located at 60 km down river (agricultural site). The total concentration of heavy metals in surface water was higher in samples collected at the agricultural site but in sediments only the Mn concentration was higher than at the mountain site. The Fe and Mn concentrations in surface water at the agricultural site exceeded the recommended values for Argentinean Legislation of 300 g L−1 for Fe and 100 g L−1 for Mn. The accumulations of Zn and Mn in M. aquaticum were higher at the agricultural site and more elevated than the Zn and Mn concentrations in sediments at the same sites and sampling times. At the agricultural site...