Geographical and Technological Indexes to Support Regional and Economic Planning in Brazil

Mauricio Fontes, Professor of Soil Science, Universidade Federal de Viçosa Land suitability, water balance and agricultural technological inputs are important characteristics of the soil as a natural resource and can play a significant role in agricultural production and productivity. Based on these characteristics, geographical and technological indexes are being proposed in order to help detect regional agricultural income inequalities and also to be used as a geographic variable in economic studies. Geographical and Technological Indexes, GeoTec I for Minas Gerais State and GeoTec II for Brazil as a whole, were calculated. In general, there was a positive relationship between the indexes and productivity of grains. These indexes can be powerful instruments for detecting regional inequalities and to implement public policies as an attempt to decrease the agricultural income disparities among regions. Mauricio Fontes earned his Ph.D. from North Carolina State University and has been a Visiting Scholar at the University of California-Berkeley and Technische Universität München. He is a Professor in the Soil Science Department of Universidade Federal de Viçosa and, during the 2009-2010 academic year, is a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Environmental Earth System Science at Stanford. You are invited to bring your own "brown bag" lunch. In keeping with the Bolivar House cafecito tradition, hot coffee is provided beginning at 11:45 am. Lecture/q&a runs from 12:15-1:05 pm.