Agricultural Development on the Brazilian Frontier: Southern Mato Grosso

Abstract

Brazilian agricultural output performance has been remarkably good in the post-World War II period, as supply increases have kept up with demand growth and shifts of demand between commodity groups, maintaining real food prices relatively constant. This good performance has been achieved in spite of neglect and even implementation of policies adverse to the agricultural sector.' Most of this output increase has been attributed to the expansion of conventional factors of production, land, and labor, rather than the substitution for these conventional factors by modern inputs, such as fertilizer and machinery.2 These increases in conventional inputs have been primarily achieved with a large-scale reshuffling of the population between states and regions. From 1950 to 1970, the largest rates of in-migration have been to the frontier states of Parand, Goids, and Mato Grosso (see table 1). There has also been a more limited and erratic migration into the northern frontier states of Parat, Amazonas, and Maranhao. The other in-migrantrecipient states have been associated with the rapid urban-industrial growth of Sdo Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Most other states have consistently had net out-migration over these 2 decades. This includes not only