Estudos sobre a eficiência da reforma agrária no estado do Paraná

Abstract

The public policy of land reform was conceived with the purpose of solving problems related to land concentration and rural poverty. Although, it was modified during the 1990s, and began to act according to some objectives, in addition the deconcentration of lands, the production of food, income and employment generation, combating hunger and poverty, internalizing public services, reducing rural exodus, diversifying services in rural areas and promoting social justice. Considering the ambitious goals established for land reform, questions and criticism were raised about the necessity and effectiveness in meeting these objectives, therefore, the central problem of this research is: is land reform efficient? In order to answer this problem, the research was divided into two parts. The objective of the first one is to evaluate the efficiency of the land reform for the Parana´s counties that had settlements until the year of 2006, using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology. And, the second part of the research aims to estimate the technical efficiency in the settlers production of the agrarian reform in the Parana state, using the Stochastic Production Frontier Analysis. The results of the first part of the research demonstrated that of the 108 counties considered, 8 obtained maximum efficiency and 87 were evaluates with strong inefficiency. In addition, it was observed that the Center-South mesoregion has a counties concentration with strong inefficiency, while the Central Eastern mesoregion was the one that obtained the largest number of efficient counties. For the second part of the research, the results indicated that the fact that the settler was in the Parana´s Southwest mesoregion was the factor that most contributed to the efficiency of the sample. Among the technological and strategic components, savings were that more contributed to reduce inefficiency, followed by the use of machines and equipment in production, and the use of crop rotation. The average efficiency of the sample was 0.6119, indicating that it is possible to increase production by 38.81%, with fixed inputs maintained. It is noteworthy that the two parts of the research converge by indicating that there are indications that the Mid-South mesoregion is inefficient. It is necessary to consider the policy’s interdimensionality for its effectiveness, as well as to consider rural development, taking into account environmental, economic and social issues, as well as to encourage sustainable alternatives for income generation, employment and quality of life. Understanding the land reform and the rural environment requires supporting specific local strategies that generate endogenous development, which increases social wellbeing and therefore benefits society as a whole.