O papel fundamental desempenhado pelas atividades econômicas não-agrícolas no desenvolvimento rural brasileiro tem sido evidenciado por vários estudos. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a hipótese de que uma parte importante das atividades não-agrícolas presentes no meio rural da maioria dos municípios do Rio Grande do Sul foi originada pela demanda de bens e serviços da própria população destes municípios. Uma análise da formação dos municípios ao longo da história do Rio Grande do Sul indicou que a densidade demográfica, assim como o nível e a distribuição da renda dos agricultores são variáveis importantes para explicar o seu desenvolvimento. A partir destas constatações elaborou-se um modelo matemático analítico que permitisse explicitar as relações destas variáveis (população rural, nível e distribuição da renda) com a demanda de bens e serviços locais. Os resultados obtidos no trabalho, especialmente as implicações formais dos modelos formulados, indicam que a manutenção da população no campo, a ampliação da renda dos agricultores e a promoção de uma melhor distribuição desta renda, podem ser elementos importantes de uma política de estímulo a atividades não­agrícolas no meio rural, o que, no entanto, não exclui a necessidade de medidas específicas de apoio à criação de atividades não-agrícolas como, por exemplo, crédito, assistência técnica e capacitação de recursos humanos.

The objective of this research is to identify the component of trade that results specifically from bilateral relations and evaluate how the creation of trading blocs affects trade relations between countries. The trirapport coefficient of the relative intensity of bilateral agricultural sector trade flows between Brazil and other countries from 1984 and 1998 is used in the evaluation. In general, the results show that relative trade intensity between Brazil and its non-MERCOSUL trade partners fell after their entry into regional trade agreements (extra-bloc effect). The intra-bloc effect (trade expansion) is reflected by changes in trade intensity between Brazil and the other MERCOSUL members and changes in trade intensity between NAFTA members Mexico, Canada, and the United States.

According to Portfolio Theory, by combining assets that show a correlation inferior to one (1) among their individual returns, it becomes possible to create portfolios that reduce risk without damaging expected return. Crop and livestock futures contracts and company stocks show such a characteristic, which signals potential benefits when forming portfolios combining these two types of assets. This investment strategy is not often utilized in Brazil. The purpose of our research was to assess whether such an asset combination is actually advantageous to those creating investment portfolios in the Brazilian market. Our evaluation used instruments of analysis developed by Markowitz in Portfolio Theory and data about the return from crop and livestock futures contracts and stocks. The data was gathered from the Brazilian Futures and Commodities Exchange (BM&F) and Brazils National Association of Open Market Institutions (ANDIMA) between July 1994 and December 1998. The results of this work showed that the combination of these two types of assets in investment portfolios can be an interesting portfolio management alternative.

The growth of non-agricultural activity since the 1980s has reconfigured the economic and social dynamic in Brazils rural areas. Our paper intends to describe the impact of this growth on income distribution in rural Brazil. We made use of a method of decomposition of two indicators of income distribution applied to1992 and 1999 Brazilian National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) data: the variation coefficient and the Gini index. It was observed that non-agricultural activities have increased the concentration of rural income and that this phenomenon is more prominent in Region I (states of Brazils Northeast and the state of Tocantins) and Region IV (states of São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul and the Distrito Federal). It was found that the income concentrating effect of each non-agricultural activity branch (commerce, transformation industry, administration, service) differed by region. In Region I, income from the "Social/Public Administration and Other Activities branch " (a PNAD designation) presents a coefficient of relative concentration greater than a unit, which indicates that income from this activities branch acts to increase the concentration of non-agricultural income in this region. In Region IV, income from industrial activities and from Social/ Public Administration and Other Activities both present coefficients of relative concentration greater than a unit; therefore, both branches act to increase the concentration of income from non-agricultural activities in this region.

This article analyzes the effectiveness of hedging Brazilian soy oil, soy meal, and soybeans in the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and in the Brazilian Commodities and Futures Exchange (BM&F) to reduce the risk of financial loss due to commodity price fluctuations. The econometric results show that a cross-hedging strategy using the BM&F soybean futures contract is an instrument of low effectiveness for managing soy oil and soy meal price risk. Despite low effectiveness, the estimates demonstrate total advantage for soy meal hedging operations using CBOT soy meal futures contracts rather than cross-hedging using BM&F soybean futures contracts. With some exceptions, the results are also more favorable for hedging soy oil with soy oil futures contracts at the CBOT rather than cross hedging with soybeans at the BM&F. Conversely, Brazilian traders hedging soybeans receive more effective risk protection by trading soybean futures contracts at the BM&F than by trading soybean futures contracts at the CBOT.

A risk analysis for the installation of milk cooling tanks (250, 500 and 1,000 L) on Brazilian rural properties was conducted in this study. The results showed that all investments had a return higher than the annual 12% minimum rate of attractiveness. There was a direct relationship between tank size and investment profitability and an inverse relation between size and risk. The probability of achieving returns lower than the opportunity cost was highest for the smallest tank (42%). In order to make the investment in small cooling tanks more attractive, the dairy industry incentives offered to farmers for supplying cooled milk could be increased. However, this approach might make investments in bulk milk collection by dairy companies infeasible. Thus, a recommendable strategy for a successful modernization of the Brazilian dairy sectors inbound logistics would be to promote an increase in the volume of the milk produced per farm.