A spatial analysis of the influence of irrigated agriculture on agricultural production in Brazil based on the 2017 Agricultural Census

Abstract

Considering the relevance of irrigation in agriculture, the objective of this study was to verify the effect of this technique on the agricultural production of Brazilian municipalities. To this end, the production function approach was used, implementing spatial techniques, based on data from the IBGE Agricultural Census of 2017. Exploratory spatial data analysis (AEDE) indicated the existence of spatial patterns in the selected variables and, in the local analysis, significant spatial clusters were identified for irrigation. In the spatial estimations, the SAR model (spatial lag model) was considered the most suitable, whose results showed that the coefficient of the number of irrigating establishments in the municipalities was positive and significant, which implies that greater adoption of irrigation is associated with the elevation in the value of municipal agricultural production.