Abstract:
Issues related to farms have been discussed in a global context due to their importance in the process of economic development. This is because they have direct impacts on social transformations inside and outside the field, besides being an important part of the system of ensuring the supply and food security of the population. Thereby, this study aimed to characterize the trends of variation in the number of farms in Brazil, by the type of main activity, and by farm size, from 2004 to 2015. For that, we used data from the National Households Sample Survey (NHSS) and the average rates of annual variation were calculated by Student's t-test using a log-linear least squares regression. From the results, there was a reduction of 3.3% per year in the farms in Brazil, a total decrease of 1,382,700 farms in the evaluated period. There was an intense drop in farms dedicated to rice (-13.4% per year) and temporary crops (-12.5% per year) and in those from ≥ 50 ha to < 100 ha (-4.5% per year). This information may subsidize the outlining of actions directed to food and nutritional security in Brazil.
Keywords:
NHSS; employer; self-employed; agricultural activity; farm size