Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 6
The Performance of the Agricultural
Economics in BRICS Countries
V
´
tor Jo
˜
o Pereira Domingues Martinho
1
Introduction
The agricultural sector has a primordial importance in the BRICS economies,
because they are populous countries with a great need for food production to supply
the markets with great dimension and with consumers, who now possess an ever
increasing purchasing power. Indeed, some of these countries have growth rates
that many of the older developed countries have not seen for a considerable time.
These contexts, of course, to avoid problems in the markets, namely the food
markets, need a dynamic farming sector to guarantee the national food provision.
Some of these countries have had both a political and economic history, namely
Russia and China with the communist regimes, where agriculture was seen as
fundamental to ensure the feeding of the population. On the other hand, Brazil
had some economic problems, namely with inflation, where it was crucial to
improve the performance of the farming sector.
In any case, it seems important to evaluate the dynamics for agriculture in these
countries over the last five decades and the interrelation of this economic sector
with the other sectors and with other indicators, to understand the evolution of the
agricultural sector and its position within the whole economy.
Agriculture is, also, today confronted by many problems, namely those related to
the pollution of the soil and water, due to, for example, nitrogen emissions and
others pollutants, sometimes derived from organic production and other times from
the use of fertilizers and other chemical factors for production. Brazil bears the
Amazonian problem, with deforestation and the, sometimes, ill adjusted use of
soils.
Climate change is another challenge for many productions across many regions
of the world along with these BRICS countries too. As an example, there are many
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