Abstract
Considering the reduced Brazilian participation in the world production of organic food and its potential in the traditional farming, we used cross-section data (based on organic producers, registered in January/2022) to analyses which local characteristics would explain the number of organic producers in Brazilian’s municipalities. The OLS, Poisson and Negative Binomial estimators, including “zero inflated” and endogeneity corrections (via instruments), were considered. It was found that organic producers would rather be in cities that are near from state capital, which are populous, rich, with a stable climate, slightly rainy, mild temperatures, better education, predominantly rural population, whose rural producers are between 25-55 years old, and which have organic producers in the neighborhood. Furthermore, they prefer places with more rural properties between 5-50 hectares, with their own irrigation, family-labor activity and that usually avoid pesticides. Alternatively, cities with strong agricultural production and high public expenditures in this area, whose properties have their own storage systems and receive more technical assistance, would be neglected. Finally, it was found a substitution relationship between traditional and organic foods and a more favorable environment to this segment in South and Northeast regions, with an indicative of barrier to organic’s entry in the Midwest.
Keywords:
rural economy; organic producers; quantitative methods
