Preliminary results¹ of Agriculture Census 2006 show that crop areas in the country increased by 83.5% in relation to Census 1996, whereas pasture areas were reduced by approximately 3.0%, thus confirming a model of development of the sector with expansion of the agricultural frontier. In the North Region, there was the highest relative increase of crop areas², 275.6%. The lowest increments were observed in the Southeast (50.0%) and in the South (48.8%) Regions, areas with higher occupation levels.  At intermediate level are the Central West (95.6%) and Northeast (114.7%) Regions.  Especially in the Northeast, the increase of 114.7% observed in the crop area may have resulted from methodological changes between the two censuses. The Census also indicates the substitution of pasture areas for crops, in the period 1996-2006, due to the progressive inclusion of the country in the international market of grain production (especially of soybeans) and to the increase of livestock. Other figures show, for the decade 1996-2006, increase of 7.1% in the number of agricultural establishments, reduction of 8.5% of the number of employed persons and increase of the main types of herd: cattle (11.0%), hog and pigs (14.9%) and poultry (73.2%). The release of final results is scheduled from October 2008. 

The Census showed increase of the relative participation of crop areas in relation to pasture areas and woods which, in 1970, was 4.5; in 1995, 4.2, and changed to 2.2 in 2006. It is worth mentioning that, although these are preliminary results, the change of level in the ratio crop areas/ pasture areas is very significant and represents a major change of land use in this country.

Livestock grows and expands towards the North

Another relevant occurrence in the data of the Census of Agriculture 2006 is the increase of cattle livestock, which reflected the use of new areas in eastern Pará, practically all over the state of Rondônia and in the Northweast of Maranhão. There was also increase of cattle occupation in the area along the Amazon River and in some of its important tributary streams, from the North of Pará towards the North of Acre.

In the areas in which there had been previous development pf livestock, above all, in the states of Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, do Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás and Mato Grosso, the Census of Agriculture indicated increase of the activity. In the Central and South part of the country, the percentage of pasture areas compared to the area of the decreased as a possible consequence of the expansion of crops. In the Northeast, although there was no change clearly stated in the distribution of areas in which grazing areas prevailed, the same trend to increase was observed due to higher cattle density.

In relation to the latest censuses, the rhythm of increase of milk production fell by 39.9% from 1985 to 1996, and by 19.5% from 1996 to 2006.

Family manpower increases 

Preliminary data about persons employed in the agricultural establishment on 12/31/2006, in relation to Census 1995/1996, showed reduction of 8.5%, having fallen from 17.9 million to16.4 million persons. In this period, the relative participation of producers’ family members increased from 75.9% to 78.0%. This increase was widespread in the country, the only exceptions being some areas of the North Region, especially the states of Pará and Amazonas. 

The increase of family manpower in the Northeast, especially in the areas covering from Alagoas to the north of Pernambuco, seems to reflect the presence of workers’ families in traditional areas of sugarcane planting.  The exception was the West of Bahia, where agriculture companies of soybeans, which were created in the 1980’s, had a bigger proportion of contracted workers not related to the producer. 

Agriculture Census collected data from 5.2 million establishments

The operations of Censuses 2007, which included the Census of Agriculture and the Population Count 2007, started on April 16, 2007 all over the country. For the transmission of the data collected, IBGE made use of its own infrastructure of 27 State Branches and 534 Municipal Agencies, and also of places for data collection in schools, city halls and associations in which census takers could download the data and send them to the headquarters of the Institute, in Rio de Janeiro. The data collection network of IBGE included 1,111 places equipped with computers and broadband Internet access, among which 700 also had satellite Internet access.

The main technological innovation of Census 207 was the use, by the field staff, of about 82 thousand handheld computers (Personal Digital Assistants – PDA), as a substitute for the traditional paper questionnaires. Equipped with GPS equipment, PDA’s enabled census takers to obtain the exact location of collecting areas (census sectors), an activity which was previously conducted only with the aid of printed maps. Hand-held computers also provided the precise geographic coordinates of agricultural establishments and their associate households. There were several advantages in electronic collection, especially in what concerns the duration of interviews, the processing of information collected and the dissemination of data to society.

This edition of the Census of Agriculture has also brought a relevant level of occurrence of the so-called decentralized data collection. This type of collection can be performed out of the establishment when the producer lives in another municipality. In these cases, the collection was completed and transmitted from the PDA of a census taker to the PDA of a supervisor working in the data collection area of the producer’s address.

_____________________________________________________________

¹The preliminary nature of data refers, partially, to the future aggregation of numbers derived from the decentered collection, which corresponds to data collected in areas located away the collecting borderlines directed to a given census taker. This happens when the producer lives in another municipality or even in another state, and consists of an unusual data collection process. These data correspond to  about 4 thouasnd establishments, msot of them located in the states of Mato Grosso do Sul e São Paulo and may affect some of the information previously released.

²Crop areas include temporary and permanent crops, and woods areas include woods and native forests, planted forests and those directed to permanent preservation or legal reservations, and silviculture. Pasture areas include natural and planted areas.