Public expenditures on brazilian agriculture

Abstract

This paper examines public expenditure on agriculture in the last decade with a focus on the last three years. One of the main concerns is to recast and bring relevant scholarship and analysis in the area, up to date. The methodology for organization and analysis of information remains the same as previously used within the time period of 2000-2008. This paper concludes that 2008 was the year with least expenditure on agriculture and land reform (R$ 13,92 billions) vis-à-vis the total federal budget expenditure since 1980. The biggest cuts were on rural credit and commercialization. On land reform, i.e., the ensemble of expenses concerning the policies of land allocation, the reduction of expenditures was minor and we note that the government either maintained the same expenses or raised funds for projects and activities in this area.