This study characterizes the use of risk monitoring mechanisms by coffee and soybean trading and processing companies. It also investigates the role these mechanisms play in the mitigation of certain transaction costs associated to bounded rationality, information asymmetry, and business opportunism in negotiations involving derivatives. The results presented are based on literature and original research, which consisted of interviews with 19 coffee and soybean trading and processing company agents that deal with the management and execution of derivatives trades. The interviews suggest that the interest in formal risk monitoring mechanisms depends strongly on the organizational structure of the business. In family businesses, in which the owner participates actively in negotiations, the interest is limited. In non-family businesses, where there is a clear separation between supervisory upper-management and agents involved with trading, the interest in risk monitoring systems is more evident. This result seems to indicate that the mitigation of transaction costs associated with information asymmetry and opportunism might be stronger motivations for interest in risk monitoring mechanisms than the costs resulting from bounded rationality.

This work evaluates the economic efficiency of productive resource utilization in the cultivation of soybeans in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. The study area comprises the states main soybean producing counties. Economic efficiency was estimated for a sample of 151 soybean producers through the production frontier function. The producers in the states northern region are operating near the established production frontier, signaling a favorable tendency in resource reallocation and achieving efficiency.

The main objective of this study was to identify and analyze the sources of inefficiency in family operated small agricultural properties in the Brazilian state of Bahias Recôncavo region from a sample of 44 producers. A non-parametric approach, in the context of cost minimizing behavior under constant returns to scale, was used to estimate the indices of technical, scale, allocative, and total (economic or cost) efficiency. Results indicated that the largest source small family farm inefficiency in the Recôncavo region is allocative inefficiency, that is to say, the non-observance of price relationships when making production decisions. On the average, 79.1% of these farms total inefficiency is due to allocative inefficiency, 9.3% to technical inefficiency, and 11.7% to scale inefficiency.

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.

Focusing on changes in agricultural policy, this paper examines the economic impacts on MERCOSUL member country economies arising from the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and a free trade area between MERCOSUL and the European Union (MERCOEURO). Four simulations are run using the Global Trade Analysis Project’s (GTAP) applied general equilibrium model. The results suggest these new trade alliances would cause an increase in MERCOSUL agribusiness production and a decrease in MERCOSUL manufactures production. In all simulations, agricultural trade flows are greatly altered and the exportation of MERCOSUL agribusiness products expands. However, the MERCOSUL countries experience overall economic growth in only the MERCOEURO scenarios. The elimination of agriculture production and export subsidies by members of the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) and European Union (E.U.) would have strong economic impacts on the economies of MERCOSUL countries.

The work analyzes the political/institutional links and technological formats of agroforestry systems in the Caí and Taquari river valleys of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul in an effort to determine a value for their ability to endure: their sustainability. Sustainability indicators are created for the analysis of these systems. The indicator values will be used to create a Sustainability Index (SI) for each studied agroforestry system and to identify each system’s sustainability pattern. The different agroforestry systems will also be classified according to their structural characteristics. Analysis of the identified patterns and indexes will reveal the adequacy of the methodology employed and the consequence of each system’s institutional arrangement, technological format, and sustainability pattern. The agro forestry system that combines exotic forest species with watermelon and the system that combines native forest species with citrus fruit stand out as being most sustainable while, from an institutional perspective, those systems that were linked in an "associative" arrangement had the highest sustainability index values.

Este trabalho analisa a questão do financiamento da produção agrícola sob uma ótica sistêmica, considerando o papel dos agentes privados no fornecimento de crédito rural. Desenvolve-se a idéia de que o volume e o custo de recursos financeiros disponibilizados para a produção agrícola são afetados por "fricções" em diversas transações sequenciais interligando emprestadores e tomadores de crédito. O objetivo do trabalho é analisar as vantagens comparativas dos diversos agentes que atuam no mercado de crédito, enfocando o potencial de cada agente em reduzir as tais fricções. Esta análise comparativa baseia-se na leitura do funcionamento do mercado de crédito agrícola dos Estados Unidos e pode ser aplicada nara o desenvolvimento de novos arranjos contratuais no mercado brasileiro.

Nos últimos anos o debate sobre desenvolvimento do espaço rural recebeu significativas contribuições que apontam para a crescente importância das atividades rurais não-agrícolas em relação às atividades agrícolas, para os estabelecimentos da agricultura brasileira, em particular, a chamada agricultura familiar. Com o objetivo de contribuir para este debate analisamos as informações disponíveis relativas à chamada indústria rural artesanal, uma atividade rural nãoagrícola. Este estudo pioneiro mostrou, entre outros fatos: que as atividades relacionadas à indústria rural artesanal são importantes para o abastecimento do mercado interno no que tange a muitos produtos; que estão fortemente presentes nas unidades de produção agrícolas, particularmente naquelas de base familiar; que a contribuição média destas atividades para a geração de emprego e receita monetária é significativamente superior àquela proporcionada pelos produtos da agricultura tradicional. Estes fatos indicam que o fomento de atividades relacionadas à indústria rural artesanal pode ter importante contribuição no desenvolvimento do espaço rural brasileiro.

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.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo estudar novas opções de financiamento da agricultura brasileira sob o enfoque dos modelos de competição imperfeita e assimetria de informação nos mercados de crédito. A natureza deste trabalho é essencialmente analítica, de forma que não foi estabelecido nenhum modelo empírico de teste e análise dos dados apresentados. A falta de recursos do sistema tradicional de financiamento da agricultura é uma forte evidência do esgotamento do modelo tradicional. São vários os entraves para um novo sistema de financiamento, entre eles: uma legislação muito pouco adequada (que acaba por dificultar a concessão de empréstimos), o forte endividamento ados agricultores, os altos custos bancários de transação para concessão de empréstimos, a assimetria de informação no mercado e, no contexto macroeconômico, as altas taxas de juros praticadas na economia brasileira.