Dichotomy between urban and rural areas: statistical data may not reveal the synergy between these two existing spaces

Abstract

The gains in non-agricultural activities represents a new dynamic in rural Brazil and now has representation in Brazil from the 1990s. In this perspective, the Brazilian countryside is undergoing a reconfiguration, pointing to an intensification of the urbanization of rural areas, especially in peri-urban areas. The installation of industries in rural areas, the deployment of agribusinesses and food exporters and utilization of rural labor for those industries, are tying the stretches between urban and rural areas. Thus, rural households are increasing income through agricultural and non-agricultural activities. The rural environment is no longer exclusively agricultural. It went on to have a diversified productive base and integrated economy in the region. Since there is a growing rural human being mobility, as well as an improvement in communication and access to information and greater integration between markets reducing the dichotomy between urban and rural. On the other hand the expansion of the cultivation of sugar cane on a region can increase the (Gross National Product) GNP per capita of the region and enable an increase economical activity. Thus, the rural household pluri-activity can be an alternative to increase the income of these families as they, increasingly integrate with the local market. It is known that with rising incomes and improving the welfare of the rural population can reduce the rural exodus that became increasing in the country since the 1970s. However, in areas with predominantly or expansion of monoculture, as an example of cane sugar, may be an increased land concentration and a worsening of income distribution in a region, and to record an increasing in rural migration, Environmental degradation and reduced local production diversification. An analysis of several indicators, socio-economic and environmental, through the Dashboard of Sustainability is possible to tell which category has the highest rate of farmer sustainability, whether smallholders or monoculture. However, the secondary data available in Brazil today does not support a thorough analysis of the participation of each actor and to which the interconnection between the actors and their synergy in local economic activity. Since, given the narrowing between urban and rural, the statistical data available are not able to demonstrate the extent to which gives the rural-urban dichotomy. Thus, it is relevant to point out and discuss ways to provide consistent statistical data and be, in fact, able to demonstrate the local reality of a region within the welfare actors.