You've certainly seen in newspapers, on TV, on the internet or even in person an image of a large tractor or harvester operating in a field, as shown in the image above, right? Of course, this has not always been the case, as technological developments in the field are still relatively recent.
The field mechanization process, therefore, corresponds to the gradual insertion of new technologies and more advanced tools in the production process. Thus, equipment such as seeders, harvesters, tractors and others gain space in rural production, all in order to improve production performance.
Thanks to this agricultural mechanization process, combined with green revolution, today we have greater productivity in the field. This means that a rural area produces much more today than it did in the past, generating more food and also more products for export, which can be considered a big point. positive.
On the other hand, the negative point to be mentioned is the replacement of field workers by machines. In some cases, some advanced equipment performs in a few days the work that hundreds of people would do in a longer period, which generates the call structural unemployment, the one that happens when the job ceases to exist.
According to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), between 2011 and 2012, there was a reduction of 756 thousand vacancies in the countryside during the period, which then shows a growing trend in the Brazilian rural space of increasing unemployment. Also according to the IBGE, in the Brazilian economy, around 14.2% of current jobs in the country are in agriculture, while in 2004 this figure was 20.4% of the total.
Another consequence that can be considered negative of the field mechanization process is the increase in the process of rural exodus. This is because these unemployed workers almost always migrate to urban areas in search of jobs, intensifying rapidly the urbanization process, especially in large cities, which results, among other things, in the increase of areas peripherals.
Despite this, the process of mechanization in the countryside is important for the economy, as it makes the agricultural activity achieve a better performance. For this reason, more attention is needed on this process, especially in terms of developing policies to help rural workers, producers and also those in need of work and income.
By Me. Rodolfo Alves Pena
