PRONAF's contribution to the growth of local economies: An analysis for Brazil

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to verify whether the PRONAF - National Agricultural Family Programa - in the FHC and Lula governments has promoted the growth of agricultural production or has been a mechanism for transferring income to the family farm. The study hypothesis is that politics is more important in Lula's government, due to real increases in average contract distributed during Lula's government, compared with the FHC's government. We also analyze the behavior of agricultural GDP in selected regions, trying to identify possible effects on the program and on the local economy and identifying the policies adopted by governments to different regions of the country. The econometric analysis indicates that during the Lula government, PRONAF has greater influence on GDP of Agriculture, however, the GDP of Agriculture had the highest growth during the FHC government. It appears that, in general, PRONAF has behaved more like a policy of income distribution, than to strengthen the agriculture, provide no direct impacts on GDP of Agriculture.

Keywords

• Family Farming
• PRONAF
• Income Distribution
• Public Policy