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Agriculture |
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From
the earliest years of the colonial era, agriculture
has held center stage in Brazil's economy. Plantation
agriculture was the country's link to the world economy.
The agrarian economy was based on large holdings dedicated
to a single export crop and dependent on slave labor
for its production. Beginning with sugar cultivation
in the 16th century, the country's economic trends have
been susceptible to a series of boom-bust agricultural
cycles. Cotton, cocoa, rubber, and coffee followed sugar.
The
1970's saw a general rise in the number of agricultural
products exported. Soybeans outpaced Brazil's traditional
agricultural earners - coffee, cocoa, and sugar. The
volume, value, and variety of semi-processed and manufactured
agricultural products increased substantially, largely
as a result of government incentives favoring processed
goods over raw crops.
Agriculture
in the 1980's continued to play a significant role in
the country's economy, but no longer did a single crop
dominate in the way sugar, coffee, or rubber had at
their peaks. Through fiscal incentives and special credit
facilities, the Federal Government strongly promoted
greater efficiency in rural areas. Furthermore, efforts
were made to alter the movement of people from rural
communities to urban areas by extending equal social
benefits, establishing rational schemes for agrarian
reform, stimulating hitherto uneconomical small holdings
and, in general, improving the quality of life in areas
that are quite remote from the main centers. Between
1980 and 1993 farm output grew between 3.4 percent and
4 percent per annum. This has permitted Brazilian farmers
not only to produce more for the domestic market, but
also to increase their exports.
In
the late l990's Brazil is still the world's largest
producer of coffee and sugar (from sugarcane), second
among soyubean and kidney bean producers, third largest
producer of corn, and fourth in cocoa production. The
various programs undertaken in the last two decades
to promote diversification of crops have borne impressive
results. The production of grains has grown consistently,
including wheat, rice, corn, and particularly soybeans.
Forest products, especially rubber (once a vital element
in Brazilian exports), as well as Brazil nuts, cashews,
waxes, and fibers, now come mostly from cultivated plantations
and no longer from wild forest trees as in earlier days.
Thanks to its wide climatic range, Brazil produces almost
every kind of fruit, from tropical varieties in the
north (various nuts and avocados) to an enormous output
of citrus fruit and grapes in the temperate regions
of the south. In 1997, Brazil contributed 32 percent
of the world's global production of oranges, the largest
in the world. During the past twenty years, oranges
have become an important export crop especially in the
form of concentrated juice. Brazil ranked second among
beef production countries worldwide and its herd is
the second largest in the world. The overwhelming majority
of cattle - around 80 percent - are raised for beef.
Dairy herds account for the remaining 20 percent.
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