Regional Heterogeneity of the Family Farming in Brazil: an Analysis Using a Spatial Stochastic Frontier

Abstract

Family farming is quite different between Brazilian regions, where one of the main factors of this distinction is the implementation of agricultural modernization that initially benefited the regions South and Southeast, making these regions more mechanized and with a higher level of human capital. Given this fact, this article aims to measure the productive differences of family farmers between Brazilian regions using data from the 2017 Agricultural Census and applying a spatial stochastic frontier at municipal level. The results have shown that there is a high heterogeneity between Brazilian regions, where although all areas have shown a decreasing return of production scale, these returns were greater for the regions Midwest, Southeast, and South. Besides, technology and labor have a lesser effect on the gross income of farmers in the Northeast. The results also show that spillovers were different between regions, both for the factors of production and for the determinants of inefficiency. Furthermore, the heterogeneity can be confirmed by the efficiency scores, which were higher in the regions South, Midwest, and Mid-South regions of the Southeast. The results also suggest that, according to the profile of each region, it is necessary to implement more efficient policies that aim to improve the effectiveness of existing policies and mitigate the differences between them, especially in the North and Northeast of Brazil.