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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of a Brazilian rural credit program, The National Program for Strengthening Family Farming (PRONAF), on small family farming production.

The method is based on a quasi-experimental approach (propensity score matching) applied to 4.1m family farmers in Brazil.

Results show that farmers accessing PRONAF tended to be positively selected in terms of several observable characteristics, such as land size and agricultural practices. Moreover, PRONAF had positive and differentiated impacts on agricultural production. The impact was larger in the poorest region when compared to the regions characterized by intensive and commercial farming.

The rural credit information was restricted to one crop year, making impossible to analyze the mid- and long-term impacts of the credit program on agricultural production.

The study provides some practical implications for policies of rural development. First, rural credit does matter for agricultural production of small family farmers. Nonetheless, since credit programs are large subsidized by the rest of the population, further studies are still needed the aggregate costs and benefits of these schemes. Results also revealed that PRONAF may have contributed to reduce regional inequalities, since the impact was larger in the poorest NE region.

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of how rural credit has impacted small-farm agricultural production, using large and representative data – the whole population of Brazilian family farmers.

This paper aims to evaluate the relation between governance and financial efficiency of credit unions in Brazil. The study shows how poor financial efficiency in credit unions may result from undesirable configurations in executive management and other variables related to governance.

The study develops an innovative methodology to classify credit unions according to the level of governance using indicators of representativeness and participation, leadership, management and supervision. This methodology integrates the use of multiple correspondence and cluster analysis. The study then applies stochastic frontier models to analyze how governance affects the indicators of financial efficiency.

The results highlight that better governance substantially increases the efficiency of credit unions in terms of a higher level of credit operations per institution.

The paper uses a pioneering survey applied by the Central Bank to almost the total population of credit unions in Brazil. The results highlight how to operationalize a subjective and broad concept related to cooperative governance to identify the remarkable impacts of good governance practices on the financial efficiency of credit unions.

The Sertão, located in the Northeastern region of Brazil, is the most populous semi-arid region in the world. The region also faces the highest rates of poverty, food insecurity and climate risks in this country. Basic economic activities, such as extensive livestock and dairy farming, tend to be mainly affected by the increasing temperatures and recurrent droughts taking place in the past decades. This paper aims to analyze farmers’ responses to climatic variability in the Sertão.

Analyses are based on farm-level data of the Agricultural Census 2006 and on historical climate data gathered by meteorological stations. The climate impacts and the effectiveness of adaptive strategies are compared between three groups of farms, which discriminate different levels of social and environmental vulnerability. Four production functions are modeled (milk, cattle, goat and sheep) accounting for sample selectivity bias.

In response to increasing temperatures, farmers tend to shift their activities mainly to cattle and dairy farming. But the overall productivity tends to reduce with the recurrence of droughts. Decreasing precipitation affects mainly the production of milk of smallholder family farmers and the cattle herd of non-family farmers.

Analyses do not account for short- and medium-run productive impacts of extreme droughts, which usually have devastating socioeconomic effects in the region.

Smallholder family farmers are the most vulnerable group who deserve more social and technical intervention, as they lack basic social and technological resources that can greatly improve their productivities and overcome the impacts of decreasing precipitation.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors, including behavior, that impact the knowledge and use of futures contracts among Brazilian coffee producers. The results are based on primary data obtained from a sample of 244 farmers.

A multinomial logistic regression model is adjusted to analyze the determinants of the producers’ choices.

The results show that behavioral variables play an important role in the decision to use futures contracts: risk propensity, self‐confidence in management, and the level of market monitoring. Variables such as education and crop size also factor into this decision.

A limitation of this study is that the analysis of farmers’ decisions and behavior was limited to one year. Future research which examines a more comprehensive group of producers over a longer period can reveal in more detail the determining factors for the use of futures contracts as a price risk management tool in the coffee market.

The paper is the first to interview Brazilian coffee producers about their hedging decisions on a large scale. The main contributions this paper makes to the literature are the inclusion of behavioral variables in its analysis that will prove valuable in both future research and in the investment industry.

Este trabalho avalia os principais fatores, incluindo aspectos relativos ao comportamento, que interferem no conhecimento e respectivo uso de contratos futuros entre produtores de café no Brasil. Os resultados baseiam‐se em dados primários obtidos de uma amostra de 244 agricultores das principais regiões produtores de café no Brasil. Um modelo de regressão logística multinomial é ajustado para analisar os determinantes das múltiplas escolhas dos produtores. Entre os principais resultados do trabalho, destaca‐se o fato de as variáveis comportamentais cumprirem um importante papel na determinação da decisão do uso de contratos futuros, em especial a propensão ao risco, o grau de confiança na gestão e grau de acompanhamento do mercado. Além disso, variáveis como escolaridade do produtor e tamanho da produção se mostraram significativas.