The paper examines the effects of the significant changes in Brazil’s agricultural policy during the 1 980s, on the ability of its modern agricultural areas to generate jobs and to retain rural population. This was done by identifying large zones of rapid agri-cultural expansion and modernization, and observing the changes in the decade, in agricultural employment and in rural population. It was possible to establish that the areas of modern agriculture in the country’s Center-South region, and in the savannas (“cerrados”) of the Center-West, either generated very little employment, or experi-mented declines in agricultural manpower. Moreover, the rural population of all these areas experimented reductions. In the Center-South the declines were quite substantial but even in the “cerrados” there were significant reductions. Therefore, to the contrary of what one might expect from the changes in agricultural policy brought about by the crises of the 1 980s, Brazil ‘s agriculture continued to expel rural manpower and popu-lation. However, in the period this expulsion was more selective, being restricted mainly to de dynamic agricultural areas. In the rest of the country, to the contrary of what took place in the 1 970s, rural emigration was either small, or there was retention of popula-tion. In fact, this contrasting pattern of migration made it possible an overall abatement in Brazil’s rural migration in the 1980s

Revista de Economia Política 1997

v. 17, n. 3(67)