Agroindustry, public policies and rural social structures: recent analyzes of Brazilian agriculture

Abstract

This article presents a review of current literature and debates on Brazilian agriculture,
identifying three basic approaches – the articulation view, the classical proletarianisation
interpretation, and analyses which take as their starting point the concept of the
agro-industrial complex. There follow the outlines of a general critique of each approach
together with an alternative framework for analysing rural structures. In the final section,
an attempt is made to synthetise the principal tendencies restructuring Brazilian agriculture
both regionally and in terms of a typology of the principal forms of production.

JEL Classification: Q15; Q10; Q18.