Assessing Brazilian agri-food policies: what impact on family farms?

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 1990s, Brazil has introduced different policies for increasing agricultural production among family farms, such as the National Program for Strengthening Family Farming (Pronaf), the technical assistance and rural extension programmes (ATER), and seeds distribution. Despite the importance of these policies for the development of family farming, there is a lack of empirical studies investigating their impact on commercialization of food products. By considering household-level data from the 2014 Brazilian National Household Sample Survey, we use propensity score matching techniques accounting for the interaction effects between policies to compare the commercialisation behaviour of recipients with non recipients. We find that Pronaf has a significant positive impact on family farmers propensity to engage in commercialisation, and this effect increases if farmers have also access to ATER. Receiving technical assistance alone has a positive effect, but this is mostly limited to smaller farms. In turn, seed distribution appears not to increase commercialization significantly. A well balanced policy mix could ensure that, in a country subject to the pressure of international food markets, increased commercialisation does not result in reduced food security for rural dwellers.