Productivity convergence in Brazil: The case of grain production

In recent years, Brazil has become a considerable player in agricultural markets for a number of commodities. Such agricultural growth in Brazil has largely been the result of gains in productivity over the last several decades. Still, there remain some sub-national regions and states that lag behin...

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Main Authors: Magalhaes, Eduardo C., Diao, Xinshen
Format: Artículo preliminar
Language:Inglés
Published: International Food Policy Research Institute 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/161941
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author Magalhaes, Eduardo C.
Diao, Xinshen
author_browse Diao, Xinshen
Magalhaes, Eduardo C.
author_facet Magalhaes, Eduardo C.
Diao, Xinshen
author_sort Magalhaes, Eduardo C.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description In recent years, Brazil has become a considerable player in agricultural markets for a number of commodities. Such agricultural growth in Brazil has largely been the result of gains in productivity over the last several decades. Still, there remain some sub-national regions and states that lag behind in both agricultural productivity and levels of per capita income. In this paper, we investigate whether technological spillovers in agriculture have reached the poorer or less productive regions with focus on the evolution and patterns of land productivity. To assess such spillovers, we examine three cereal crops: maize, rice and wheat, as these crops are grown by commercial and subsistence farmers throughout the country. We first apply a generalized entropy (GE) method to assess whether inequality in productivity has changed over time. The entropy analysis indicates that the trends for overall entropy did not increase over time for all three crops. Moreover, declining trends in between-group inequality were observed for maize and wheat and remained constant for rice. This result suggests that yields in less productive micro-regions, indeed, have grown faster than yields in more productive micro-regions, at least in the case of maize and wheat. Next, two types of econometric estimations are used to measure whether convergence has occurred in yields of the three crops. The econometric findings are consistent with the GE results and suggest that conditional convergence has occurred in all three crops, which demonstrates that yields in less productive regions converge to those in productive regions, given the control of other factors. However, the process has been rather slow.
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spelling CGSpace1619412025-11-06T07:20:11Z Productivity convergence in Brazil: The case of grain production Magalhaes, Eduardo C. Diao, Xinshen productivity development policies In recent years, Brazil has become a considerable player in agricultural markets for a number of commodities. Such agricultural growth in Brazil has largely been the result of gains in productivity over the last several decades. Still, there remain some sub-national regions and states that lag behind in both agricultural productivity and levels of per capita income. In this paper, we investigate whether technological spillovers in agriculture have reached the poorer or less productive regions with focus on the evolution and patterns of land productivity. To assess such spillovers, we examine three cereal crops: maize, rice and wheat, as these crops are grown by commercial and subsistence farmers throughout the country. We first apply a generalized entropy (GE) method to assess whether inequality in productivity has changed over time. The entropy analysis indicates that the trends for overall entropy did not increase over time for all three crops. Moreover, declining trends in between-group inequality were observed for maize and wheat and remained constant for rice. This result suggests that yields in less productive micro-regions, indeed, have grown faster than yields in more productive micro-regions, at least in the case of maize and wheat. Next, two types of econometric estimations are used to measure whether convergence has occurred in yields of the three crops. The econometric findings are consistent with the GE results and suggest that conditional convergence has occurred in all three crops, which demonstrates that yields in less productive regions converge to those in productive regions, given the control of other factors. However, the process has been rather slow. 2009 2024-11-21T09:59:40Z 2024-11-21T09:59:40Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/161941 en Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Magalhaes, Eduardo C.; Diao, Xinshen. 2009. Productivity convergence in Brazil: The case of grain production. IFPRI Discussion Paper 857. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/161941
spellingShingle productivity
development policies
Magalhaes, Eduardo C.
Diao, Xinshen
Productivity convergence in Brazil: The case of grain production
title Productivity convergence in Brazil: The case of grain production
title_full Productivity convergence in Brazil: The case of grain production
title_fullStr Productivity convergence in Brazil: The case of grain production
title_full_unstemmed Productivity convergence in Brazil: The case of grain production
title_short Productivity convergence in Brazil: The case of grain production
title_sort productivity convergence in brazil the case of grain production
topic productivity
development policies
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/161941
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