Políticas Trabalhista e Fundiária e seus Efeitos Adversos Sobre o Emprego Agrícola, a Estrutura Agrária e o Desenvolvimento Territorial Rural no Brasil

This paper discusses the question of the concentrated pattern of agricultural developmentin Brazil, as expressed in the predominance of large-scale production, high level ofmechanization and low absorption of non-qualified labor. It is proposed, initially, theexistence of two conflicting explanations for this fact: the first, that blames our historicalheritage, characterized by the predominance of the latifúndio, with the implication thatthe solution requires a radical agrarian reform; and the second, that sees in theseconcentrated pattern of agricultural growth in Brazil a technological determinism, with theimplication that lesser concentration in agriculture would imply a loss in economicefficiency. Diverging radically from these two lines of arguments, this paper attributes tothe agricultural labor and to the land policies that were instituted in the decade of 1960,and to the agricultural credit policy, instituted by the same time, the major responsibilityfor this problem. As argued in the paper, these policies turned unviable in Brazil not onlythe agricultural temporary labor market, but also family farm, at the same time thatstimulated agricultural mechanization and the predominance of large-scale production.The paper points out, also, that an additional by-product of this concentrated pattern ofagricultural growth was an increase in rural exodus and a lower level of territorial ruraldevelopment, a theme so stressed nowadays. The paper ends up proposing, in a mannerconsistent with the analysis presented, that the only way to initiate the de-concentrationof our agricultural growth and to create the pre-conditions for territorial ruraldevelopment would be through a radical de-regulation both of agricultural labor andland markets, instituting in Brazil, at last, free contracting, the most basic capitalisticinstitution.