STATE AND AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN BRAZIL

Abstract

The study discusses aspects relative to the performance of two public research institutions - EMBRAPA and PLANALSUCAR, within the context of local capitalism. However, an attempt is made to stress the way in which the state makes viable and conciliates the development of research policies for agriculture in light of the contradictions between the social segments most directly connected to capital or to labor, and between the project of the nation and the process of international (capital) accumulation. Such contradictions are also expressed in the agriculture research carried out by state enterprise. It is concluded that, on the whole, these organizations serve basically the interests of large economic groups, and the most organized, pointing out the possibility of private expropriation of public resources, the most prominent fact in the case of PLANALSUCAR.