An Evolutionary Study on Crop Production in Small Farm Systems in the Mid-West Region of Brazil Based on a Linear Programming Model

Abstract

Based on an agro-technical study for the mid-west region of Brazil, and considering financial conditions like monthly expenses and long-term investments, a mixed integer and dynamic linear model has been proposed for representing crop production systems. This model establishes a monthly dynamic treatment of production and financial activities over a long-term planning horizon for small and medium farm systems. In this paper, by considering more recent government financial policies for the Brazilian agricultural sector related to the Pronaf and Proger credit lines, a mathematical model is updated for distinct situations derived from the use of short and long-term loans which were defined for small and medium farmers. In this way, new versions of the original model are obtained by separately implementing into the production systems economic and financial conditions of credit lines for the years 2006 and 2009. Computational tests are performed and the results obtained are presented in several scenarios. Also, an evolutionary analysis on the socio-economic and financial feasibility of the agricultural farm system is drawn over the last decade by comparing the results obtained to one known from the year 2002.