RESTRUCTURING EFFECTS OF RICE CULTURE ON THE AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY OF 1210 GRANDE DO SUL STATE, BRAZIL

Abstract

This paper deals with allocative changes in the production of rice in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, during the period 1970-1996. Therefore, it was possible to obtain, through a descriptive statistical method, that involves interconnected analyses of proportions of land use, among other indicators, the Dislodgement Index (DI) and the Rice Allocative Effect (RAE). Results, that embody recent structural changes surveyed in the agricultural census of 1995-96, support either basic and specific hypotheses formulated in this paper. The Dislodgement Index (DI), a proxy indicator for agricultural output growth rate, decreased along time, a movement apparently of pro- cyclical content. Although, it has to be put in perspective with yield increases in agricultural production as well as with changes of relative weights in all the links of the production chain, that must have been increasing participation of processing industries, services sector and so on. Therefore, rice production has been increasingly nettcd by agribusiness links and by systems of institutional support that made it possible to generate changes, in an environment that helped increase scale, complexity and scope for rice production in Rio Grande do Sul. The trends observed for results obtained regarding RAE in the analysed periods reflected allocative changes. once farmers privileged investment decision in favour of rice, making that activity one of important specific weight in the economy of State of Rio Grande do Sul, and stabilizing the original impacts of soybeans, that has "migrated" to midwestern region, on a very concentrated farm size structure. The expansion of rice in State of Rio Grande do Sul was, for its turn, highlighted as a phenomenon occurred largely on biggcr farms. Mass production, found in Europe and in the United State.% canal "fordism", that consists in a increasing concentration in a reduced number of agricultural and processing units, on larger scale of operation, has been a new tendency for rice production in State of Rio Grande do Sul. However, even larger scales cannot avoid the increasing segmenting trend in demand, patterns that have been observed more recently, as opposed to the mass production. It is the so-called demand-pull influente, that may significantly alter the conformation of rice production in State of Rio Grande do Sul.