Convergência da produtividade agropecuária: uma análise considerando regimes espaciais por biomas entre os anos de 1995 e 2017

Abstract

Agriculture is a sector that has a great influence on the formation of national income. Since the opening of 1960, a Brazilian agricultural sector started to develop in a very close way, thus studies that address the agricultural productivity issue and its growth if relevant. This research seeks to test the hypothesis of convergence of agricultural productivity for the microregions of Brazil between the years 1995 and 2017, using a spatial econometrics and spatial regimes divided by biomes. To achieve the objective, space econometrics and models of spatial regimes are used, in order to control the possible spatial dependence and heterogeneity to which agricultural productivity is exposed. As a result, the occurrence of an absolute and conditional convergence process was confirmed for Brazilian micro-regions and for three biomes: Amazonia, Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest. The variables that were relevant to the convergence of productivity in the three biomes were: credit per hectare with a positive sign and the number of tractors per hectare with a positive sign. The variable manpower per hectare for the Cerrado was negative and decreased, and the proportion determined that has some soil conservation practice positive and significant for the Atlantic Forest. Regarding half-life, the longest time was found for the Cerrado biome with a value of approximately 43 years and the lowest value can be observed without an Atlantic Forest biome with a value of approximately 35 years.