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In recent years, Brazil has succeeded in significantly reducing its poverty rate both in rural and urban areas, thanks to its impressive economic growth and increased political focus on poverty. Approximately 40 million Brazilians have been able to step out of poverty and join the middle classes over the past decade. But, although Brazil is a middle-income country and a major industrial power in the region, hardship and huge income inequalities still remain widespread in parts of the country.

The government has succeeded in halving the incidence of rural poverty in the past two decades, but extreme poverty remains a persistent concern in rural areas. About 5 per cent of the urban population is classified as extremely poor, compared to an estimated 25 per cent of the rural population.

About 40 per cent of poor rural households are made up of smallholder farmers relying on their produce for their livelihoods, and 46 per cent are landless, unemployed labourers. On average, about one quarter of smallholder farmers are poor and the rate is higher in the northeast of the country.

The North-East region is the country’s poorest and least developed area, and has the single largest concentration of rural poverty in Latin America. In this region, about 35 per cent of the rural population lives in extreme poverty. This vast semi-arid area, also known as the Sertão lies close to the equator and is subject to very erratic rainfall that can range from drought to flooding. Most of the vegetation is badly degraded as a result of centuries of cattle ranching or clearing for cotton farming. The farmers who eke out a subsistence living are at the mercy of the weather, and crop failure is a frequent occurrence.

Low incomes, poor access to public services, adverse climatic conditions and the limited natural resource base, characteristic of a semi-arid region, have led large numbers of people to migrate away from the Sertão to urban areas, especially São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

One of the main causes of poverty throughout Brazil, and in the northeast in particular, is extreme inequality of land tenure. Good agricultural land is concentrated in the hands of a few. But smallholder farmers make up more than 84 per cent of the country’s farming sector, employing approximately 75 per cent of the rural labour force. Small-scale agriculture, known as ‘family agriculture’ in Brazil, produces over 50 per cent of the country’s food supply and a significant share of food exports.

The majority of family farms are small, produce low income and typically consume about half their output. People struggle to supplement their incomes through salaried labour or small-scale enterprises such as handicrafts. Overall, rural communities are held back by high levels of illiteracy due to poor quality and coverage of schooling, limited access to basic infrastructure and services, and poorly functioning rural financial markets. They lack access to water, particularly in the arid interior of the northeast, credit, skills training and improved technologies that would help boost productivity.

Indigenous peoples, women and young people are among the poorest and most vulnerable groups in rural areas. About 27 per cent of rural households are headed by women, either because their husbands have been forced to migrate to other parts of the country in search of work or because they are single mothers. Women often have the sole responsibility for farming and raising children. Child labour is still common among poor households in Brazil.

Portuguese version

Source: IFAD