Recent development patterns and challenges of brazilian agriculture

The chapter provides a review of the determinants of Brazilian agribusiness development over the last decades. It argues that the presence and competitiveness of Brazilian agribusiness on the international market and overall positive economic performance is mostly the result of broad long-term domestic structural transformations, both at the macroeconomic level and within the sector, in which innovation has played a central role. Further, recent developments have not been free of contradictions. Although productivity gains have operated as a powerful growth driver, new land at frontier zones was brought into cultivation and deforestation has continued. The chapter is organised as follows: Sect. °2 documents the agrarian structure, role and performance of Brazilian agribusiness. Section °3 examines issues related to food security. Section °4 deals with the shifts in institutions and policies from state-driven to state-controlled liberalisation in Brazil. The following sections present empirical evidence on the sources of Brazilian agriculture growth and the role of the Brazilian system of innovation in agriculture. The concluding section outlines the obstacles and challenges for Brazilian agribusiness, including environmental and social relations that have become sensitive issues, whose consequences upon both the agricultural pattern of growth and sector governance cannot be ignored. © Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) 2015.The chapter provides a review of the determinants of Brazilian agribusiness development over the last decades. It argues that the presence and competitiveness of Brazilian agribusiness on the international market and overall positive economic performance4166sem informaçãosem informaçã