THE GENERATION OF TECHNOLOGY FOR THE PRIVATE SECTOR: THE CASE OF THE AGRIBUSINESS IN BRAZIL

Abstract

The present study attempts to analyze the mechanisms which have made viable the production of agricultural technology by the agroindustrial transformation complex. The first part consists of a brief diagnosis of the evolution and of the role of this agroindustrial sector in the Brazilian economy. In the second part, by means of several case studies of agroindustrial processors, an effort was made to determine how the private sector has created technology adequate to its needs. In the third part are analyzed some of the principal mechanisms by which these private firms obtain state financing to produce this technology. It was concluded that a private and independent agricultural research sector has not been developed in Brazil in the agroindustrial food and raw materials processing complex similar to that which occurred in other countries.