Financial capital and land grabbing: the control of lands by the company Agrifirma Brasil Agropecuária Ltda

• Grant number: 17/25322-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2018
• End date: March 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: Samuel Frederico
• Grantee: Lucas Antunes Leite da Silva
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas (IGCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In this project, we start with the idea that financial agents are imposing a new dynamic in world agriculture. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the increase in demand for commodities along with the global financial crisis has paved the way for financial investors' interest in controlling land. The Brazilian territory, with its comparatively cheap land stock, has become attractive to international financial capital, which has entered into agreements with large domestic producers and companies to acquire large areas on the agricultural frontier. The challenge is to analyze the strategies of action and accumulation of the agricultural company Agrifirma Brasil Agropecuária LTDA in the Brazilian territory. In this way, the research proposes the identification of the controlling financial agents of the company and its forms of partnership, to understand how they operate in the land market and in modern agricultural production. In addition, an analysis will be made of how institutional investors are able to impose their logic of profitability on the company and their strategies of acquisition, appreciation and sale of land. (AU)