Avaliação do impacto do PRONAF sobre a agricultura familiar no município de Bonito, estado de Pernambuco, mediante o uso do Propensity Score Matching

Abstract

The National Program for the Strengthening of Small-Farm Agriculture (PRONAF – Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar) is one of the most important public policies directed to small-farm agriculture. Attending about two million small-scale farmers per year, PRONAF contributes to the democratization of access to rural credit among a group of farmers that until then had remained on the margins of the financial system. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the PRONAF`s impact on small-farm agriculture in the municipality of Bonito, in the state of Pernambuco, by using the propensity score matching methodology (PSM). This method allows to compare the performance of a group affected by the implementation of a particular policy (treatment group) with another group that was not affected by the policy (control group). This research compared beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of PRONAF in the categories “investment”, “production” and “productivity”. The primary data were raised through semi-structured questionnaires applied to an intencional sample of small-scale farmers in the municipality of Bonito. The survey results show that PRONAF did not produce the expected impacts. Only in relation to the variable “investiment value”, the program had a positive impact, although not significant. Concerning the other variables the PRONAF had a negative but not significant impact. These results are consistent with those found in other reviews and indicate that the PRONAF primarily benefits those family farmers who are capitalized and integrated into agribusiness.