Agricultural activity in the southern region began primarily on the coast, the place is called Campanha Gaúcha, before the arrival of European immigrants.
After the nineteenth century there was a large flow of European immigrants, especially Italians, Poles, Germans and other nationalities. These settlers received plots of land, where they mainly developed polycultures, the labor used was the familiar. Crops with a characteristic of a subtropical climate, such as wheat and grapes, were destined to supply the local market.
Recently there have been many changes in the configuration of the southern agrarian space, in several cases polycultures have given way to monocultures. The main culture responsible for this process is soybean. The production is no longer destined for the regional market to become export products. In addition, properties that were previously small and medium-sized have become large latifundios, since large farmers and agricultural companies bought the plots of land from the settlers' descendants, thus promoting land concentration in the region. The work has gone from being predominantly familiar to being mechanized.
This process led a large number of workers and former landowners to migrate towards the cities, thus promoting the migratory phenomenon called exodus rural, not to mention the large number of southern migrants who went to other regions of Brazil, such as the Midwest and North, promoting the expansion of the agricultural frontier of the parents.
Even with the problems pointed out, the southern region continues to play a large role in agricultural production, at least 70% of wheat and soybeans in Brazil they come from this part of the country, in addition to the production of grapes, which accounts for 65% of what is produced nationally, including about 50% of corn and rice.
By Eduardo de Freitas
Graduated in Geography
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/brasil/a-producao-agricola-na-regiao-sul.htm
