DIVERSITIES AND MOBILITIES OF BRAZILIAN AGRICULTURE

Abstract

A major agricultural country, Brazil is one of the first producers in the world for a vast array of goods. The dynamism of its agriculture is constantly reorganizing the national territory, changing the "vocation" of agricultural areas at an astonishing speed. But the power and the flexibility of this sector should not, however, mask the major tensions and the deep inequalities it also contains. These conflicts partly explain the important changes which are at work today, and will most probably change the situation in the years to come. Rigid, often unjust (because it too often juxtaposes men without land and under-utilized land), the Brazilian rural world is also dynamic, because it conquers more new lands than any other country in the world, and constantly innovates by developing new productions. Even relegated to the status of reserve and auxiliary force in the national economy, it remains an excellent field of study, revealing the forces that are steadily transforming Brazilian society, as well as some of the weaknesses of the "Brazilian development model".