Viability of agrarian reform in periurban areas in the Eastern Amazon

Abstract

The process of urbanization in rural areas grows throughout the world. In the Brazilian Amazon, the occurrence of this expansion process allows for increased economic performance of farms due to land use intensification and diversification of production in peri-urban settlements. The objective of the research was to evaluate the economic performance of farms, pondering the prospects of farmers as to stay in the Settlement Project Cupiúba. We sampled 30% of the settlers of settlement project, which corresponds to 65 farms to survey data by applying semi-structured questionnaire. The data refer to various aspects of the characteristics of establishments, including family data, economic data, agricultural practices, hand labor, marketing, basic infrastructure and assets acquired. Data analysis was performed by comparing the average ANOVA - single factor analysis and correlation between variables with simple correlations. In the economic and financial aspects were investigated income-generating activities in agriculture and non-agricultural establishment. Based on the results analyzed, it appears that the establishments if enable the agricultural income while the chiefs are young, and the receipt of retirement when they are in old age. The viability of agriculture is through the sale of plant products. The intensification as showed no clear effects on income and diversification showed effect depending on the valuation method. Establishments have economic viability and the vast majority is above the level of simple reproduction (LSP), regarded as the minimum income needed to reproduce the means of production unit and remunerate family labor over time.