The Spatial dynamics of agriculture in Brazil in 2008 and 2018

Abstract

Given the great influence of agriculture on Brazilian society and economy, it is important to understand the spatial dynamics of different agricultural cultures to identify strategic producing regions, serving as a subsidy for public policies. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to carry out, through the exploratory analysis of spatial data, a comparative analysis of the spatial dependence of the production of different crops in Brazil, in the years 2008 and 2018. Using data from the Municipal Agricultural Production (PAM) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), selecting the 12 crops with the highest total production values ​​in 2018 (cotton, rice, banana, coffee, sugarcane, beans, tobacco, orange, cassava, corn, soybeans and tomato). A comparative analysis of cultures evidenced the formation of four groups, concerning the spatial dynamics of the high-high groupings in the two years studied. The first group is formed by cultures (cotton, rice, coffee, sugarcane, orange and tobacco) that tend to be concentrated in specific areas of the territory and did not show relevant changes in the clusters between the years under study, while the second group includes crops that expanded their areas between the two years (beans, corn and soybeans). The third group is formed by crops with smaller clusters and more spaced apart among themselves (banana and tomato). Finally, cassava was not included in any of the groups due to its dispersed production throughout the territory and also because it suffered a reduction in some regions.