Abstract
Rural credit is the main instrument of Brazilian agricultural policy supporting and providing farmers with greater investment in their production. However, when compared to other regions, the Northeast region requires greater attention, in addition, this region also presents heterogeneity. Thus, this study estimated the effect of rural credit destined to family farmers (Pronaf) on the total production of temporary crops in the region, discriminating in regions with semi-arid and non-semi-arid climate, in addition to the municipalities with irrigation poles and those that do not. The database was obtained from the following sources: PAM, IBGE, BCB, MDA, INMET and Global Climate Monitor; in the period from 2012 to 2017, due to the availability of data, and these were analyzed with the application of methods for panel data with random effects. The results showed that rural credit had a positive effect on the gross value of production during the period analyzed, despite the number of family farmers having no influence. In addition, the municipalities that have irrigation poles showed better results among the other groups, in contrast to the municipalities located in the semiarid region.
Keywords:
rural credit; family farmer; temporary crops; Semi-arid Northeast; Northeast not semiarid