Diversification in Agricultural and Livestock Production and Land Inequality in the State of Minas Gerais in the First Decades of the 20th Century

Abstract

Based on data from the 1920 Brazilian Agricultural Census, this
article offers statistics that allow an analysis of the diversification of agricultural production and land concentration in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais and its regions in 1920. The analysis reveals that at that time, despite the importance of coffee farming, the regional agricultural production in Minas Gerais was quite diversified and strongly linked to the cultivation of genera traditionally intended to supply the domestic market. This article also demonstrates that, in 1920, the greater or lesser degree of diversification in regional agriculture in Minas Gerais does not seem to be associated with
greater or lesser land concentration. Furthermore, it can be seen that in the coffee producing areas of Minas Gerais, the main export product of the Brazilian economy at the time, inequality in the distribution of land ownership was relatively low.