THE AVAILABILITY AND APPLICABILITY OF DRAUGHT-ANIMAL AND MECHANICAL WORK IN BRAZILIAN AGRICULTURE
B. Havrland
Summary
The largest country of the tropical zone - the Brazilian
Federation - is a country of enormous socio-economic differences between member
states and regions and between urban and rural areas. The differences in agriculture
as the main branch of the Brazilian economy are particularly large. The key
problem of Brazilian agriculture is the poor technological level, caused by
the economic weakness of the main link - the small-scale agricultural producer.
Of the total number of farm in the country, about 60 % mostly rely o,n human
work, 31 % use teams of draught animals, and only 9 % of the farms use^motomechanical
work. This ratio slightly changed during the 1970's, yet has remained almost
unchanged since then. The costs of field agricultural production vary mainly
with the crop produced and technology used. Though replacement of the work of
draught animals by the use of a tractor almost trebles labour productivity,
it is hardly advantageous because it increases the costs about eight times.
Opportunities of further increasing the technological level of Brazilian agriculture
are limited, owing to the poor selling prices of agricultural products and high
buying prices of tractors and implements* The ratios between the prices of farm
products and the prices of industrial goods also vary with states and regions.
Key words:
technological level, technology based on the use of
draught animals, energy inputs, technical equipment for production