A
whirlwind
A cultivation that provides food for the
people and equally generates countless jobs
and hefty income. This is the beautiful land-
scape of the activity that extracts from the
vegetable garden (either small or big) an
enormous variety of products that meet peo-
ple’s multiple consumption needs. The Min-
istry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Sup-
ply (Mapa) maintains that vegetable crops
are the ones that generate the biggest prof-
its on every cultivated hectare, in comparison
with other cultivations, like grain crops.
In its estimates, while the production sys-
tems of the sector, in the open, require an
annual average investment from US$ 1 thou-
sand to US$ 5 thousand per hectare, income
from the same area could generate fromUS$
2 thousand to US$ 20 thousand, depending
on the technological level, added value and
market scenario. Embrapa Vegetables, from a
study conducted by researcher Nirlene Jun-
queira Vilela, based on data released by the
Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statis-
tics (IBGE), in 2014, celebrated revenue of
R$ 12.5 billion from only seven crops of the
national horticulture business.
Taking into consideration 18 crops of the
sector that grow seeds, the Brazilian Seeds
and Seedlings Trade Association (ABCSEM)
ascertained revenue of R$ 14.5 billion at farm
gate level, in 2012. Regarding wholesales, the
amountwouldrisetoR$27billionand,atretail,
it would reach more than R$ 53 billion. Mapa
officials have it that more than half of the veg-
etables produced in the Country, 55% to 60%,
are traded by wholesalers. Revenue from the
sales of the seeds of the 18 crops amounted to
R$ 743.6million in 2015, say ABCSEMofficials.
On the other hand, the entity maintains
that the number of jobs directly stemming
from the cultivation of those crops reaches
2.4 million people. Mapa officials estimate
that, on average, every hectare devoted to
vegetables generates six direct jobs at field
level, and the same number of indirect ones.
As 32 vegetable species surveyed by Embra-
pa occupy nearly 800 thousand hectares,
olericulture activities, in fact, involve 7 mil-
lion people. This, without considering cassa-
va, which, alone, occupies some 1.5 million
hectares, providing jobs for an evenmore ex-
pressive number of people, about 14million.
Together, olericulture crops are supposed to
employ 10% of the national population.
Diversity of products in the national horticulture business is a source of labor and
billions in profits for millions of people in every corner of the Country
Inor Ag. Assmann
Seven crops alone bring
in revenue of more than
R$ 12 billion for the farmers
Sílvio Ávila
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