Abstract EN:

The capitalist development of agriculture has been central to major transformations in both the nature and extent of land income in brazil the increasing concentration of land holdings is indicative of a race to control the conditions of access to income from land. Whereas, in the centre and south of the country, this concentration process has been accompanied by production intensification, in the semi-arid zone of the north-eastern region, it has been the crisis in traditional agriculture that has, paradoxically, been the cause of land-holding concentration. Faced with the competitive and modernised agricultural productions of the centre and south of the country, the large landowners in the north east have abandonned agricultural production. No longer investing in agriculture, they have turned either to extensive husbandry or have withdrawn completely from the agricultural sector. In doing so, they have redeployed their acumulated capital into urban-centred activities. However, far from selling off their property holdings, they have sought to enlarge them as it is through land ownership that gouvernment grants are obtained.