The present paper attempts to consider three farm types by the analysis of four farms in the Patos Basin of the inland Paraiba State on the basis of the results of the field research, which was conducted from December, 1972 to January, 1973. It intends to build models of the main farm types in Sertao, the semi-arid region in the inland Northeastern Brazil.
The main types of agricultural management in the Patos Basin may be divided into
fazenda,
sitio and
vazante. It goes without saying that the a
fazenda contains sharecrop farming within the farm. The authors described about samples of these three types of farms. However, it is almost impossible to expect that every individual sample to be identical with the model of one of the three types. Therefore, they tried to generalize and “Present model of these management types” utilizing the knowledge obtained through observations and information on some other examples, articles and first hand interviews with many well-informed people about these matters.
a)
Fazenda Land of
fazenda is mainly used for grazing cattle and its farm size is 2, 000 3, 090 hectars. Five to ten per cent of this farm are cultivated. The cultivated land is divided into the land under the direct management of the
fazendeiro and the land tilled by sharecroppers. The size of the former is 30_??_100 hectares and that of the latter for an individual sharecropper is 5_??_10 hectares. The former is usually under the control of the manager of
fazenda. Farming is chiefly done by commuting laborers, sharecroppers and seasonal laborers employed at harvest times. A contract of sharecropping usually involves duty labor. The raising of livestock is carried out by
vaqueiro. There are many
fazendeiros who have tractors and trucks lately. They have reservoirs for irrigation and drinking water, which are effectively used for controling the sharecroppers. Crops are usually cultivated in flood plains or on gentle slopes of interfluves. The interfluves are gravelly in contrast to the sandy flood plains. Futhermore, the interfluves are dotted with exposed rocks making much of the land unsuitable for cultivation. Perennial cotton (
serido variety) occupies most of the cultivated lands in the middle and the lower part of sloping interfluves and in flood plains. All cotton fields are intercropped with crops such as corn, beans or potatoes. While these inter-crops are grown for self-sufficiency, cotton is entirely for sale. Rice is cultivated on either naturally or artificially irrigated lands.
The autors may consider that the
fazenda farming is focused on grazing cattle. The manager of
fazenda raises 200_??_300 cattle on the
caatinga in the rainy season and on cultivated land in the dry season. The
fazendeiros has the grazing right on the sharecropped lands after the harvest. Products, for sale from the fields under the direct management are livestock such as cattle, sheeps, donkeys and hogs and cotton and others, of which cattle and cotton are overwhelmingly important. Many of the
fazendeiros or members in their families are dealers of agricultural products.
Many of the sharecroppers manage 5_??_10 hectares of fields, most of which are cropped. In addition, they often cultivate several hectares of fire burned fields scattered in the
caatinga. Most of the farm works depend on family members, but much of tilling depend on tractors the
fazendeiros own. This tendency is becoming marked lately. In general, a sharecropper rents a house, cattle, farming tools and seeds from his
fazendeiro. In case of crops, the common condition of tenant farming is either the equal share arrangement or that the landowner takes 60 per cent of the harvest, and in case of cattle the landowner gives a tenant a calf out of the newly born four calves.
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