Análise da eficiência da agricultura familiar agroecologista

This paper results from a study that aimed to identify agri-environmental indicators, which could embrace the environmental, economic and social dimensions of ‘peasant’ or ‘family farm’ farming systems in southern Brazil. The agroecological and the conventional farming systems were scrutinized. The analysis of the indicators provided evidence of greater ecological soundness and socially fairness of agroecological farmers. However, the non-ecological farming presented more sustainable trends in the economic dimension. In order to better understand the latter trend an efficiency analysis was carried out using the stochastic production frontier (SPF model, a technique for efficiency measurement. The aim was not only to measure the relative efficiency or inefficiency of each individual farm, but also to identify the socio-economic variables that were contributory. The SPF uses a simultaneous regression of the input variables to explain the output variable with the regression of socioeconomic variables used to explain inefficiency. The SPF model analysis has shown that the agroecological system contributes to a greater allocative efficiency. The other statistically significant variables analysed in the model have shown that increases in off-farm income, credit and farm area, have a negative effects on efficiency, and that increases in schooling and number of working people in the household increases efficiency.