Agricultural policy in middle income countries: a Brazilian perspective

Abstract

This paper refers to the OECD study that shows low levels of protection to Brazilian agricultural sector in comparison to other countries. After a brief review of the history of government intervention in the sector, this paper showed details of the calculation of support to the sector, which was conducted by OECD, seeking to demonstrate that the current Brazilian agricultural policy, despite the current low level of protection, is not effective in reducing the existing duality in the sector. This paper suggests that more resources should be devoted to training, education and rural extension, and fewer resources should aim subsidized credit policies.