Family farming modernization index in the Northeastern Bra

Abstract

Given the importance of technology to farmers for the increase of production, and in view of the vast national literature in this area, the objective of this study was to measure the level of modernization of the agricultural activity of family farmers in the Northeast of Brazil. For that, we applied the factor analysis method based on data from the agricultural census of 2017 (Censo Agropecuário de 2017), from which six factors – extracted from the 27 indicators used in the model – explained 89.61% of the accumulated variance of the sample. It was observed that family farmers in the Northeast show a low mean (0.1315) for the agriculture modernization index (índice de modernização da agricultura - IMA), which behaved in a homogeneous manner between the states. The highest IMA value occurred in Rio Grande do Norte state, and the lowest one, in Maranhão state.