Productive structural differences between small, medium and large agricultural establishments in Bahia

Abstract

The Bahian and Brazilian agricultural production is characterized by a large number of small establishments with little area extension, low investment capacity and low technology use, while there are a small number of establishments with a large area, high investment capacity and which produces at a high technological level. This work aims to verify the productive structural differences between the layer of small, medium and large agricultural establishments. Aggregate production functions were estimated for the State of Bahia, as well as for the Translog and Cobb-Douglas functional form, production elasticities were estimated, as well as marginal productivity and marginal rate of technical substitution for each layer. It has been found that the strata of small and medium, as well as that of small and large produce under different technological levels and that strata of medium and large establishments are under the same technological level. The marginal productivity of the land for the three area strata was negative, the credit variable was not statistically significant in any strata and expenditure and capital variables were the most impactant in bahian farming production in 2006.