Rural development indicators and their relationship with public policies on family farming: an analysis for Brazilian mesoregions

This study measures the rural development index (IDR) for the 137 Brazilian mesoregions using the partial index method, which considers population (IPOP), social well-being (IBES), economic (IDE), environmental (IMA) and technological appropriation (IAPT) indicators and relates the IDR index to the average value of contracts entered into under the National Program for Strengthening Family Farming (PRONAF) and the Food Procurement Program (PAA) and to the value of the procurement of products from family farmers by the National School Meal Program (PNAE) through Pearson's correlation. The data were extracted from the Agricultural Census (2006), Demographic Censuses (2000 and 2010), Brazil ' s Central Bank (2010), the Ministry of Education (2010) and the National Supply Enterprise (2011). The results showed that rural development in Brazil is marked by high heterogeneity. Of the 137 Brazilian mesoregions, the six that stood out for the highest IDR indices were the following ones: Federal District (DF), Metropolitan Region of Sao Paulo (SP), Itajai Valley (SC, state of Santa Catarina), Ribeirao Preto (SP), Araraquara (SP) and Greater Florianopolis (SC). In contrast, the southwest region of the state of Amazonas (AM), the north region of the state of Amazonas (AM), the central region of the state of Amazonas (AM), the south region of the state of Amazonas (AM), the hinterland region of the state of Pernambuco (PE) and the backcountry of Alagoas state (AL) were the six mesoregions recording the lowest IDR indices. It was also found that the IDR index had a moderate correlation with the PRONAF program, a low positive correlation with the PNAE program and no correlation with the PAA program. Therefore, it was concluded that the best IDR indices are those recorded in Brazil ' s southeast, south and mid-west regions, while the lowest ones were those recorded in the north and northeast regions of the country.