The Performance of the Agricultural Economics in BRICS Countries - The Agricultural Economics of the 21st Century - page 87

Conclusions
The contexts for these five BRICS countries are in reality very different, not
only in terms of economics but also in terms of dimensions.
Some of the preoccupations within the Brazilian agricultural sector are
related to environmental problems, the utilization of farms to produce sugar-
cane for biofuel and with the Amazonian occupation. However, recent farm-
ing policies have improved the performance of this sector and made it into
one of the most dynamic economic sectors.
In the Russian Federation some of the main concerns relate to the envi-
ronmental impact of agriculture, climate change, and land privatization after
the end of the Soviet Union.
Some central questions in Indian farming practices are about the renew-
able energies and with the agricultural practices which are compatible with
the environment, namely those related to organic farming.
The priorities in China are directed namely towards industry, rather than
for agriculture. However, the production of grain continues to be one of the
most important and strategic productions in China.
In South Africa, namely due to the location of this country, the challenges
are related to climate change and water management.
On the other hand, the data description made before revealed that, namely
India, has many economic and social fragilities and, in some cases, so too
does Brazil. This shows some difficulties for the future, in terms of compe-
tition across the international markets. For example, India still maintains
some economic and social problems; specifically in terms of literacy rates
and malnutrition prevalent in children under 5 years of age, and Brazil suffers
lending rates of about 40 %. At the agricultural level, China and India have a
lower level of farming productivity whereas South Africa and Russia possess
the best performances. However, the evolution context of the farming con-
tribution to GDP and for employment is, more or less, the inverse.
The results obtained with the estimations confirm the inverse relationship
between agricultural productivity and the contribution of agriculture to GDP
and the positive interrelationship between the weight/level of employment in
agriculture and the proportion of the agricultural output for the national
income of each BRICS country.
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