Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

About the publication - 2013

The geographic interpretation of agriculture information provided by the IBGE, especially by the 2006 Census of Agriculture, make the Brazilian Rural Space Atlas a project in line with an integrated perspective from the socioeconomic dynamics of the contemporary Brazilian Rural Space. The refinement of the cartographic and statistical tools, in rural delimitation and characterization, undergoes  the understanding of territory information as a fundamental analyzes category to cover all the complexity of the current Brazilian countryside reality, which is not limited just to specific primary activities. Rather, it covers a territorial integration betweenthe rural and urban space, highlighting the intersectoral combination of the economy and the environmental variable as a key element.

As, in the first decade of the 21th century, the rural space was considered the great agricultural and environmental power in the planet, the Brazilian Rural Space Atlas is challenged to overcome the national rural and agriculture image based on outdated patterns that do not respond to the complexities of the contemporary world. The project aims at surpassing those old patterns, promoting a new multidimensional vision of the rural world.  Hence, it is necessary to keep the sequence of maps and themes,  the conceptual commitment  with integrated analysis of the approached. The complex geographic thoughts and the territorial approach of the rural space are crucial.

Therefore, the project scope also consists of indicating new social powers, forms of appropriation and use of natural resources and, finally, new structuring processes of the Brazilian rural space, grounded on the IBGE’s database. In this way, the theme division of the Brazilian Rural Space Atlas needs to be in accordance with the renewed rural world, in which the role of the primary activities – agriculture, livestock, silviculture, etc.- pave the way for a larger thematic diversity. Therefore, many themes are included, as rural-urban relationships, Information and Communication Technology – ICT, Logistic and flows traced by complex production chains, environmental conditions, and others, which are seen in a new context which leads to even more complex issues, like: soil use and the harvesting distribution/specialization, as well as the reproduction of many producing sectors that compete in the Brazilian rural space.